Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Drath-ri Apr 04, 2010 0:22:15	So I've got this DM in training (I've DMed for nine years and now he's taking over). We're in 4e, and for some reason whenever he does encounters, he just takes monsters from the MMs and just changes their names and makes them whatever he wishes. Aka an elemental is now a human monk. Now to me, a DM of nine years, it just screams laziness to me. We're talking about all the time, he just takes and changes the name and blam all the sudden its something else. Dragon = BBEG Knight. From my POV he's killing the monsters in the book because now he won't be able to use them again without the party going "Hey, isn't that what the monk/knight/etc etc. was doing the other day?" And then he asks us to do all of this homework out of game without actually preparing for his games. I mean seriously, creating a monster in 4e takes a few minutes at the most. And I tried bringing it up to him (both in an out of game) that the players notice and in return don't put as much work into the campaign because he isn't and he just tells me "This is the way I DM, deal with it." Am I wrong in doing this? or am I just dead set in my ways where a campaigns worth was based on how much work the DM actually put into it, instead of half doing it just before a session?
#2 phytoon Apr 04, 2010 0:44:28	That sound pretty lazy to me. Ask him if he really wants to DM, because it seems like he's doing that simply because he does not want to put forth effort. Like you said, it only takes a few minutes to customize monsters, so there's really not much of an excuse for renaming monsters to something they're not even close to being. Also, I've been wondering for a while what BBEG means. What does that stand for?
#3 Mad_Jack Apr 04, 2010 1:04:36	Big Bad Evil Guy
#4 5m4llp0x Apr 04, 2010 1:35:21	Try to co-op a game, because he really needs training wheels. If he refuses help then have everyone confront him. If he tries to hold strong then vote him off the island.
#5 sillen Apr 04, 2010 1:35:35	Tell him most players "deal" with bad DM:ing by not showing up for anymore of their games. I'd find it rather puzzling if my DM had me do some kind of out-of-game work, and then failed to put in some amount of the same himself. That said, does it really matter what statblocks he uses for what monsters ? If you stopped metagaming and just rolled with it, would the game be fun or not ? That is the important question I suppose. Just curious now what kind of "homework" is he having you do...Algebra ?
#6 Breadley Apr 04, 2010 4:52:02	First, he's got a real attitude problem saying that to you, but in his defense, DMing can be really stressful starting off so he could be behaving too defensively. Some reskinning isn't so bad. For example, if you can't help but notice a monster feels more like a different one in its design, or, say, you need a Gnoll Archer and they don't have one statted, reskinning to the rescue. I really hope that was hyperbole with the Elemental example, though, THAT would be lazy.
#7 Drath-ri Apr 04, 2010 13:51:57	No, no hyperbole at all. That's what we fought last session, was a mix of different monsters in "monk skin" some of which were elementals.  This isn't even his first trip around the DMing block. Its like his fifth. So I figured he would of got it already. And as for homework, its item wishlists, long backstories (when this was just supposed to be a campaign for him to get his training wheels). We have to explain our characters actions to him OoG to see if we switch alignments. and stuff like that. I have no problem with the first two, but no body else at the table has done them and he wonders why.
#8 5m4llp0x Apr 04, 2010 14:21:17	The "item wish list" isn't a bad thing, if he is willing to give them out as the adventure goes on. I like to know the build the players are making (general idea, at least) and items they'd like to have on them by 20 (doesn't have to be complete, but a rough idea). This way I can avoid giving them garbage like Elixer of Love or Murlynd’s Spoon. But the back story, and alignment issue is complete garbage. I mean, a quick rundown of the history is fine, but this isn't V:tM. He doesn't need to know your first love, how you did in school, or when you first pooped your pants as a baby.
#9 nikitadarkstar Apr 04, 2010 14:25:30	Sounds pretty lazy to me, and to be frank if the DM  is doing less work than me, I'm out. If he's running a fun game then stuff won't need to be "homework" because you'll be planning for your characters future anyway, and most likely fleshing out the backstory as you go. (Atleast thats how I work as a player, but that might just be me.) But well it sounds like there might be a reason why this is his 5th time trying to DM, if he pulls stuff like this players will get up and leave afterall and then he's a DM without players. Well good luck in trying to talk some sense into him.
#10 Drath-ri Apr 04, 2010 14:39:29	Thanks guys. :D
#11 razzanor Apr 04, 2010 19:49:29	You tell me where in the Monster Manual your DM can find a human monk of a comparable level and statistics as the elementals he pitted you against under a different skin. Tell me where he can find a solo-difficulty "BBEG Knight" that is just as much of a well-built, appropriate challenge as a dragon. The simple fact is, the Monster Manual is a limited resource. Even with its relatively short range of choices, it's still a hell of a lot of monsters to look through. Unless you know every monster type by memory, the best thing you can do is think of what level monsters you want, what type of monsters you want, and what difficulty of monsters you want. If the answers to those questions are "3, brute, solo", congratulations; you're fighting a Young White Dragon. Yeah, he could put more work into it. He could create his own monster, but chances are, he isn't familiar enough with the rules to make a good one. His monster will have twice as many hit points as it should, leading to a boring slog of a fight; his monster will deal way too much damage, to the point of your party's leader running out of ways to allow the rest of the folks to spend their surges; his monster will cause severe status effects that will render some or all of the party completely useless, creating the most ridiculous "the DM hates me" feelings possible. My advice? Just be glad he's at least willing to refluff the monsters, rather than just having a gang of elementals randomly occupying a monastery. If anyone in your group has a D&D Insider subscription, give him the login info or at the very least download Adventure Tools on his computer. Seriously, it's a great resource, both for referencing existing monsters and for creating new ones without the need for paperwork or really even any significant mental effort. If nobody has a DDI subscription... well, you're on your own.
#12 Ventus_Frago Apr 05, 2010 14:00:04	I'm sorry, was the theme of the encounters monks from the elemental chaos?  You make a hobgoblin super knight by just giving any deathknight the basic hobgoblin ability to roll a saving throw. The creators of this game explicitly state that reskinning the monsters is an acceptable/available way to run your campaign. Instead of complaining of how little work he seems to be doing -- oh no's he's reflavoring existing monsters, instead look at the rest of the work he is doing -- writing a plot, putting together encounters, treasure parcels etc. Hooray you've been DM'ing for 9 years, he's been doing it for what? How many times? Instead of looking for Kudo's for feeling like a better DM than him, you should be looking for advice on how to help this new starting DM get his skills together. It is a cooperative effort and looking for validation for your superior DM'ing skills doesn't help your group. GO TEAM!!!
#13 nightwalker450 Apr 05, 2010 15:42:59	Reskinning monsters is a great idea.  Especially if your groups plays a lot and in different campaigns, they've fought many things many times and know the tricks. So a skilled DM will reflavor things, to give it a twist.  It keeps those players who have been reading Monster Manuals for 9 years from metagaming as soon as the creature appears. I did it this last weekend (on accident actually, I was just looking for appropriate figs in a hurry),  I had a pair of human mercenaries... well I had a couple hobgoblins that worked, so I called them hobgoblins.  But since one of my players had fought hobgoblins many times (as other characters) he was worried about them getting the defense boosts etc.. from teaming up.  If someone would have put a save ends thing on them I would of had them roll it once for the encounter.  But overall I think I'll be doing this more often, changing the race or face of the monsters so that players/DM's who can't put Metagame knowledge aside will be surprised. Sounds like you have a good DM in training, especially if he's asking for wish lists.  That's straight out of the DMG and for someone who might not know all the items by heart, after all it doesn't sound like he's been reading equipment lists for 9 years, it'd be a good idea to hear what the players want as well.  Its also pretty useful if characters are playing builds/classes you aren't overly familiar with, its a good way to avoid giving useless items. I just hope that in 9 years time when he's teaching a new DM, his experience doesn't goto his head and make him cocky and degrading of people who are new to DMing.
#14 Breadley Apr 05, 2010 15:52:22	Come on now, let's not be snippy, guys. I will say I sympathize with the new DM as much as the next person, but I can understand some of the annoyance of the OP as well. At a certain point, it can be a bit much. Though, I will say that refluffing can have advantages. Say you have a Monk, for example, from a different Order than another, and you gave them different "fighting styles"(different monsters), that could be more flavorful than "You fight two monks. One has a red hat."
#15 kuonji Apr 05, 2010 19:13:07	I also agree that reskinning monsters is a great way to extending the MM's usefulness.  It's hardly what I would call "lazy" DMing, more like creative DMing.  Quite frankly, there isn't a endless supply of premade monsters around and sometimes I need a Human skirmisher of whatever level and the easiest thing to do is just pick Monster Race X skirmisher and replace Monster Race X with Human.  On a related note, I'm totally stealing the reskinning elementals as monks idea because I think an order of elemental focused monks sounds pretty fun.
#16 Phrennzy Apr 05, 2010 20:17:57	Don't knock him for reskinning.  Instead, just accept what he gives you the way you want him to accept what you give him.  Instead of looking at the monk as a reskinned elemental, accept it as a monk.  Let yourself go into the roleplay of it.  You are using your metagame knowledge to spoil your own fun.  If you want him to DM, let him DM, and enjoy his style.  It's not yours.  It never will be.  Be happy that someone is willing to run a game other than you, so you can play.  I am a player in a game right now that is teleporting us across Faerun and through its timeline.  The DM is much more excited about it than us.  We don't know the Faerun mythology like he does.  But instead of grousing, I stay upbeat, and we laugh at the elves of Cormanthor, writing off any jerk elves (and there are a lot of them) by saying, "You're all dead and this place is crawling with demons."  It's funny how the attitude of someone who has been dead for 5000 years just doesn't matter.  Grab the dice, beat down the monk, and have fun.
#17 ChimericPhase Apr 06, 2010 0:03:51	You are using your metagame knowledge to spoil your own fun.  I agree with Phrennzy- step back, take a deep breath, and focus on having fun instead of these "flaws" in your new DM's method. There is nothing you described up there that I haven't done myself at one time or another.  Your method, his method, and my method of DMing are all probably very different - as long as the players are having fun it really doesn't matter if the stats are reskinned, straight out of the book, or entirely made from scratch. If a player came to me indignant about this sort of thing, I'd also have to point out thats just my style. Re-skinning is not an entirely thoughtless process. You don't grab a level 24 gold dragon and claim it's a housecat. With the monster builder, I frequently reskin monsters because it's a relief to me knowing that I'm using a balanced monster - if I built one from scratch, even if I tried to build well and by the guidelines, I'd worry it was unbalanced all the way to game and probably half way through combat (which would prove or disprove my worries pretty much right there).
#18 rian_king Apr 06, 2010 13:26:14	I hope your not complaing about the wish list.  It doesn't take long and helps the DM out. Next reskinning isn't as bad as you think.  How would the fight be any differnt if the monster was the appriote one anyway.  How did you know it was reskinned anyway?  Did he tell you? On the other hand have you shown him the Monster Builder.  It's pretty easy to make a monster.  Walk him through the steps once and it should be clear from there
#19 brassbaboon Apr 06, 2010 15:49:56	Heh, I've many times said that I reskin monsters all the time. I do it deliberately so that players can't metagame the fight. I reskin descriptions, powers, effects, whatever. The monster breathes fire? Mine breathes cold. Etc. As long as I am consistent, that's all that matters. I tend not to reskin the most common and best known monsters, figuring that even peasants would have some knowledge of goblins and dragons. But for the vast majority of monsters, I'll reskin at will. And how is it "lazy" to reskin? Wouldn't it be "lazy" to just follow the MM exactly? I wonder how much of the OPs objection to this is "well, if we had KNOWN it was an elemental we'd have fought differently!" Well, perhaps that was entirely the point. Would your CHARACTER have known? Of course to stay within the rules, you still have to allow nature and/or dungeoneering checks, but for the most part players in my campaigns cannot expect to walk into every fight knowing what to expect just because they read the monster manual. When my players say "what the heck is that?" that is exactly what I intended. Oh yeah, I also make my own miniatures...
#20 j-pop_jedi Apr 07, 2010 1:42:19	I love to make my own monsters because of metagame monster manual abuse. Keeps the pcs on their toes.
#21 Baphogoat Apr 07, 2010 16:42:53	I see nothing wrong or lazy about what he is doing.  I dont know if you didn't explain the situation completely, maybe we are missing something, because the only problem I am seeing here is that you are complaining about his reskinning. Reskinning is something that I do quite frequently, and it leads to great encounters because the players can't metagame.  If I have an idea for a monster I might find something that has the powers that fit my concept and level up or delevel that monster to fit my needs, nothing lazy or wrong here.  As someone above said 'wouldn't it be lazy to use it straight from the book?'  In this case he is putting work into the flavor of his game.  So, either restate the issue you are having so we can see what the problem or issue really is or get over yourself, this DM is on his way to being a good one from what I can tell.
#22 lionlemur Apr 07, 2010 21:42:05	Apologies in advance if I come off as harsh.  This thread just set my teeth on edge a little.  The OP basically states, I've been DMing for 9 years, I am so Godwa wonderful that I'm going to train someone else, but he doesn't do it like I do and thus I think he is a bad DM. Train?  What's to train?  You sit down with the other DM, make sure they know the basic rules (which they could just as easily learn by reading the books).  Maybe you give them a few tips and pointers on what's worked for you and then they're off on their own.  Hopefully they have a talent at it.  Hopefully they'll take your tales of woe and intrigue to heart and learn from them.  Hopefully they'll also be interested enough to do some research on their own, regarding story and plotting and on occasion, various rules issues. What it sounds like the OP is really saying is, "I want this person to be a clone of me so that I can experience DMing exactly as I would have done it, but I want to be a player now. Well, guess what?  Every DM has their own style.  And if you look over the forums, every single post dealing with a similar situation pretty much comes down to, "it's the other DM's world now.  Sit back, relax, don't try to metagame, and realize that he now determines the world.  If you don't like it, lump it or leave." Sounds like the new DM is doing a great job.  Why shouldn't he skin monsters, and as somebody else suggested, "how does your character even know?" If you want to DM, then do so.  If you want to be a PC, sit back, relax and realize that someone else is in charge for a change.  Don't be a control freak.
#23 johnkretzer Apr 07, 2010 22:30:03	I think the OP could benefit from reading this thread... community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758....
#24 tsukinousagi Apr 09, 2010 22:43:48	I'm not afraid to say that just like some players simply suck as gamers, some DMs also just plain suck at being the DM. Doesn't sound like the new DM is just exercising his own unique style, sounds like he is just plain not using any style at all.
#25 rian_king Apr 10, 2010 9:59:55	I'm not afraid to say that just like some players simply suck as gamers, some DMs also just plain suck at being the DM. Doesn't sound like the new DM is just exercising his own unique style, sounds like he is just plain not using any style at all. hey hey.  He has to discover what his style is.
#26 weary_psi Apr 11, 2010 2:09:05	I have to echo others in this thread, I don't see what's wrong with changing the face of a monster. Granted, "Elemental to Monk" doesn't sound like the best transition to me, but hey, I wasn't there, I don't know how well it worked (or didn't). But there's nothing inherently wrong with the practice. Not everyone likes building monsters from scratch, and more importantly, not everyone is good at it. I'm not sure it's wise to accuse another DM of being "lazy", you should know better than anyone how time-consuming it can be to prep and how busy people can be with everything else in their lives.
#27 southwood_wanderer Apr 18, 2010 16:03:07	On one hand, I can see the merits of an occasional re-skin, to keep the party members from metagaming. But there are other ways to do that. Templates or items that grant abilities that the creature otherwise wouldn't have, or a battleground that is a challenge in and of itself can both force the PCs to change up their tactics.n This guy isn't complaining because the new guy re-skins now and then. He's complaining because he always uses re-skins. Occasional = Fine. Always = Ridiculous.
#28 zxvalarevan Apr 18, 2010 19:21:46	On one hand, I can see the merits of an occasional re-skin, to keep the party members from metagaming. But there are other ways to do that. Templates or items that grant abilities that the creature otherwise wouldn't have, or a battleground that is a challenge in and of itself can both force the PCs to change up their tactics.n This guy isn't complaining because the new guy re-skins now and then. He's complaining because he always uses re-skins. Occasional = Fine. Always = Ridiculous.    But the question is, would it be ridiculous if he ALWAYS used unreskinned MM monsters?  If not, then why are the reskins so ridiculous?
#29 fishpro Apr 18, 2010 22:14:51	I gotta say, I also use reskinned monsters heavily. At the same time, I never tell the players such, and I do my best to describe the abilities logically, and thematically appropriately. If this DM is reskinning the monsters, then telling the players (or worse, bragging about it), then he's making a mistake in that. Heck, if you think about it, a lot of creatures are simply "reskins" of others - they just changed the names for you already. Without knowing how much time the "new" DM actually has to prepare, it's hard to tell if he's actually being lazy, or simply being practical. When I was in college, I could make new monsters galore, and prepare complex maps (that was 3e, but still). I had time then! Nowadays, I find I have much less time, and so I am forced to "borrow" existing monsters and repurpose them to provide novel fights for the players. There's too little information for me to agree or disagree with the OP, although I'll admit the fact that he emphasized his self-declared experience twice makes me...wary of what's actually going on. *shrug* Edit: Incidentally, "Elemental to monk" could work very well indeed, depending on the elemental. When I read the post originally, I pictured a Rockfist Smasher (MM2 pg 100), reduced to Medium size and reach adjusted to 1. Could work great as a beefy, brawler-type monk! Depends how it was handled/described, though.
#30 RyndarLocke Apr 19, 2010 3:07:38	Come on now, let's not be snippy, guys. I will say I sympathize with the new DM as much as the next person, but I can understand some of the annoyance of the OP as well. At a certain point, it can be a bit much. Though, I will say that refluffing can have advantages. Say you have a Monk, for example, from a different Order than another, and you gave them different "fighting styles"(different monsters), that could be more flavorful than "You fight two monks. One has a red hat." red hat monks are dangerous but you really have to look out for the red shirt monks.  No fear of death...it's like they don't even see it coming.
#31 Andrelai Apr 19, 2010 10:40:36	The new DM's biggest mistake was in letting you know his BBEG knight was a reskinned dragon. But the question is, is that his fault or yours?  Did he describe the fluff of the knight's powers in a believable way?  Did he roleplay the knight well?  Or are you using your metagame knowledge of the MM to figure out what he's done? Reskinning aside, was he competent  and consistent in handling the rules?  Did the combat and skill challenges flow well?  Was the game fun for the other players, who may not have been as annoyed at the reskinning? All of these questions are FAR more important than this obsession with what a monster looks like and what it is named.
#32 Breadley Apr 19, 2010 11:05:14	I told my brother about the elemental skinned into a monk. "...Big Trouble in Little China?"
#33 twistedpuppet Apr 19, 2010 15:08:16	My group doesn't put a lot of trust in the monster builder. It has a bug that randomly shows what looks like a roll for attack damage but is not listed for the monster in it's original source book; and this is unmodified. It either shows a random 4d8 or 4d10 that isn't even in the context of the power. It's just off to the side. This was really horrible when a new DM pitted us against 2 boneclaw guardians and when they got bloodied, they exploded. The monster builder had 4d10 + 5 listed on the power card, so the DM had the attack do  4d10 + 5 damage. The monster is only supposed to do 10 necrotic damage. Anyways, we don't trust the monster builder. We usually demand the DM look up the source material on that monster before proceeding with using said monster. The DM running the game atm is just ignoring any instances of random 4d10s or 4d8s just to be on the safe side.
#34 southwood_wanderer Apr 19, 2010 23:29:45	But the question is, would it be ridiculous if he ALWAYS used unreskinned MM monsters?  If not, then why are the reskins so ridiculous? If it leads to inconsistency, this is an issue. If I reskin a water elemental to be a monk, yet he still has a whirlpool ability, that isn't going to make a lot of sense without considerable RPing on the DMs behalf. A lot of RPing. Also, if they then fight another one of these "monks" and a different reskin is used, the players are going to want to know what's up. And no, its not metagaming for players to expect one blue dragon to be similar to the next, as long as its in the same game. For example, veteran soldiers often learn the traits and tendencies of their foes in combat through experience. That's part of what makes veterans generally better at what they do than green troops. Also, if I say, "Hmm, I need at BBEG tonight that fits in this room of a castle" and use a red dragon reskinned as a knight, then come back in a week and they're in some grand underground chamber of the same castle where there is a non-reskinned red dragon, the players will notice.
#35 inarai Apr 19, 2010 23:33:58	But the question is, would it be ridiculous if he ALWAYS used unreskinned MM monsters?  If not, then why are the reskins so ridiculous? If it leads to inconsistency, this is an issue. If I reskin a water elemental to be a monk, yet he still has a whirlpool ability, that isn't going to make a lot of sense without considerable RPing on the DMs behalf. A lot of RPing. Also, if they then fight another one of these "monks" and a different reskin is used, the players are going to want to know what's up. And no, its not metagaming for players to expect one blue dragon to be similar to the next, as long as its in the same game. For example, veteran soldiers often learn the traits and tendencies of their foes in combat through experience. That's part of what makes veterans generally better at what they do than green troops. Also, if I say, "Hmm, I need at BBEG tonight that fits in this room of a castle" and use a red dragon reskinned as a knight, then come back in a week and they're in some grand underground chamber of the same castle where there is a non-reskinned red dragon, the players will notice.  Of course, the monk could practice a style designed to emulate an elemental, which is where these powers come from. The knight might be a Dragon Knight, a knight sworn to the service of a dragon and who develops abilities that mimic those of his master.
#36 skibo_the_first Apr 20, 2010 2:46:34	If you don't like the way the DM dm's then do it yourself. Every DM has things they do that annoys the players, that's life. It's weird that he'd reskin creatures all the times, but if that's the only annoying thing he does count yourself lucky. I'd rather have a lazy dm then a jerky one.
#37 warrl Apr 20, 2010 4:34:44	The "item wish list" isn't a bad thing, if he is willing to give them out as the adventure goes on. I like to know the build the players are making (general idea, at least) and items they'd like to have on them by 20 (doesn't have to be complete, but a rough idea). This way I can avoid giving them garbage like Elixer of Love or Murlynd’s Spoon. But the back story, and alignment issue is complete garbage. I mean, a quick rundown of the history is fine, but this isn't V:tM. He doesn't need to know your first love, how you did in school, or when you first pooped your pants as a baby. As one who LOVES writing long detailed backstory... The DM needs something like the Ten-Minute Background. He doesn't need, or have time for, somewhere between 15 and 150 pages. Which I can do for most of the characters I've developed. Fortunately for me, if I have those 15+ pages, I can probably spit out the ten-minute background in about five minutes. And the 15+ pages isn't a waste anyway. I'm practicing the craft. And it's possible I'll produce some material good enough to turn into (or use in) a marketable story.
#38 pluisjen Apr 20, 2010 5:35:03	I reskin heavily. Why not? Who cares that the Monk uses the stats for an Elemental? There are no Elementals in this story, so it won't be an issue. Give the guy some time to work on it. You might not even notice that the Dragon Knight was a reskinned Dragon, not even after you fought the real Dragon in another battle. Unless you are metagaming everything, of course. This DM sounds like he's getting the basic gist of 4e; don't invest a lot of time in things that aren't important. What matters is that the encounter is fun and the story continues and remains interesting. Not that the Monk you fight is modeled using a level 15 NPC Monk Human with all the proper items and feats selected. If it can be refluffed to a monk, then decribe it as a monk, and it'll be a monk. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either stuck in meta-game world or thinking in terms of D&D 3e.
#39 chaosturtle Apr 20, 2010 15:15:24	I reskin heavily. Why not? Who cares that the Monk uses the stats for an Elemental? There are no Elementals in this story, so it won't be an issue. Give the guy some time to work on it. You might not even notice that the Dragon Knight was a reskinned Dragon, not even after you fought the real Dragon in another battle. Unless you are metagaming everything, of course. This DM sounds like he's getting the basic gist of 4e; don't invest a lot of time in things that aren't important. What matters is that the encounter is fun and the story continues and remains interesting. Not that the Monk you fight is modeled using a level 15 NPC Monk Human with all the proper items and feats selected. If it can be refluffed to a monk, then decribe it as a monk, and it'll be a monk. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either stuck in meta-game world or thinking in terms of D&D 3e.  Yes, because as we all know 3e had pages and pages of rules about how you couldn't change a single thing about a monster and required all players to have every page of all the monster manuals memorized to be perfectly able to choose which attacks/spells/etc to use on which creatures{.} I really don't see a problem with reflavoring...does it really matter that the elemental your fighting is instead called monk?  Isn't that in and of itself completely a flavor thing anyway, I mean...its just a name and an appearance, would you have had no complaints if instead of a monk you fought the elementals...or would you be more likely to go, "huh, these elementals sure do seem out of place."  As long as he doesn't go completely crazy, like giving fire creatures water based powers or weaknesses that make no sense etc. its not something you have to worry about.
#40 southwood_wanderer Apr 21, 2010 1:26:55	I reskin heavily. Why not? Who cares that the Monk uses the stats for an Elemental? There are no Elementals in this story, so it won't be an issue. Give the guy some time to work on it. You might not even notice that the Dragon Knight was a reskinned Dragon, not even after you fought the real Dragon in another battle. Unless you are metagaming everything, of course. This DM sounds like he's getting the basic gist of 4e; don't invest a lot of time in things that aren't important. What matters is that the encounter is fun and the story continues and remains interesting. Not that the Monk you fight is modeled using a level 15 NPC Monk Human with all the proper items and feats selected. If it can be refluffed to a monk, then decribe it as a monk, and it'll be a monk. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either stuck in meta-game world or thinking in terms of D&D 3e.  Oh yes, I simply hate how restrictive 3.e is with all those abilities and powers that I can only use once during combat or a day. And all those books filled with rules for almost everything just made it so hard to BS stuff, it was like someone had done it before and was trying to help make things easier or something.   Also, if you ask a veteran soldier, they will pick up on the tendencies of their foes after a while. A DM can reskin occasionally, but they must be consistent. If they use a fire elemental for the base of an orc warrior, the other orc warriors they encounter better darn well be fire elementals, or be intentionally planned to be different for plot reasons.
#41 MWSAber Apr 23, 2010 13:42:39	I told my brother about the elemental skinned into a monk. "...Big Trouble in Little China?" Or Air Bender
#42 The_Stray Apr 30, 2010 19:04:37	The DM needs something like the Ten-Minute Background. You seem to have linked to the 4E motivator thread instead of the TMB...here is the correct link.