- I may be an old fashioned DM, but I do expect my enemies to be bound by the same rules I am. So when I encountered Gnolls who can either melee or range attack consistently three times a round, or a would be level 4 paladin dishing out more than 20 hp damage in one attack and then happily going on to multiattack, my first reaction was "What the hell did I do wrong with my character and companion builds? Why can't I do that?". Following that was a frantic search to enable my party to provide the same level of punishment. Apparently I didn't do anything wrong, which beggars the question why a level 4 standard Gnoll is so much more proficient in combat than what should be the hero of the game.
I switch my monster up every now and then to keep my players on their toes. If things are too predictable because of OOC knowledge it's not necessarily a good thing. I think they should keep to the rules for the run-of-the-mill gnolls and goblins, but then have a lot of leeway for the bosses and unique monsters they want to put in.
- Which brings me to the question: What is the purpose of a warrior? Or a rogue, for that matter?. I may be tied too much to the concept of a tank, but Lae'zel certainly isn't one. She's pretty good in one on one melee combat, but that seems to be it. And why would I need a rogue? I can apparently lockpick and disarm traps well enough with my ranger, so the concept of the rogue in this setting seems to elude me. The combat damage I've seen so far from Astarion isn't something to write home about, either, even if he is doing his sneak attacks from behind. Not that I would let that bloody Vampire near my party ever again, but that is a different story. ;-) Did I miss something? I can't really see why I would have a melee character in my party.
I think there's three reasons
- Advantage from backstab is way too powerful, and acid too prevalent, so the "tanks" have a big problem tanking anything because of this deviation from the rules.
- The highest quantity enemies you'll be fighting at the start are goblins, who can disengage at will. This is according to the rules, but unfortunately it makes the fighters ability to do battlefield control a bit worse
- Rogues biggest value on the battlefield ought to having a lot advantage on the rolls from being hidden, where no one has reliable access to advantage. Right now with cantrips proning everyone, backstabbings galore and height giving advantage on ranged attacks, everyone has advantage all the time. None of those things should give advantage, which would make the rogue a lot more valuable because he can actually hit stuff.
