...they are supposed to have...
Do you ever stop to consider that maybe you'd enjoy the game more if you never opened a monster manual? That way you wouldn't be so full of "...they are supposed to have..." and instead you'd be able to appreciate what they do have.
And what do we have in BG3? I mean. Really. What do we have?
Imps - no special abilities. They are just winged grunts who use standard weapons. No resistance. No stings. They can't even fly up and away from melee fighters. No invisibility. Nothing. Literally, they ARE turned into Level 1 grunt trash mob minions no better than thralls.
Thralls - no special abilities. They are just grunts who use standard weapons. No resistance. No special abilities. One might have a few spells, maybe, but overall, they're just trash mobs.
Intellect Devourers - no special abilities. They are just melee claw using grunts. No resistance. No special abilities. Nothing. Literally, they ARE turned into Level 1 grunt trash mob minions no better than a boar or a wolf. No. Worse. No special abilities like charge or knockdown.
Hellsboars - no breathing fire. No resistances. No special abilities. Just a different looking trash mob with low AC and HP fit for level 1 characters.
You guys constantly talk about how you hate fighting trash mobs all the time, but what Larian has done is turned a lot of monsters that SHOULDN'T be trash mobs into trash mobs. Am I wrong?
And the other problem I have with all of Larian's warped monsters is that they call them by monster names from the Monster Manual.
Phase Spiders. I encounter them. I am familiar with how they work because I've played D&D since the 80s. I know they are melee assassins who spring up on your party and try to attack you suddenly. You'll literally have seconds to respond and kill them before they attack you, and hard. Surround the mage! They can't get to him if you surround him!
Nope! Not in BG3. I encounter phase spiders and they're suddenly zipping around hundreds of feet from upper ledge to upper ledge attacking from 60 feet away! Suddenly, my mage is not safe. Bam! Mage is dead. All strategy I had going into the fight is out the window. My fighter, who could kick melee phase spider $#@$, is suddenly useless because she can't hit with a bow very well. Her dex is low. Phase Spiders are impossible to kill because I can't even get to them. My mage is dead because they spit poison several times from 2 different directions. What is this madness?
I'd much rather have ??? as the monster description and then later find out they are Teleporting Spitter Spiders than have them called Phase Spiders. Fine. At least then I know I'm dealing with something TOTALLY different. I won't assume my anti-melee phase spider tactics are going to work.
Same with mud mephits, wood woads, intellect devourers, imps, and virtually everything else in BG3.
But, even IF I could forget all of what I know about D&D, the fact remains that Larian monsters are not homebrewed to make them more interesting. They are homebrewed to make them LESS interesting. With the exception of the spiders - which, like I said, give them a different name and fine. They're a new kind of spider - most of them are nerfed and stripped of their uniqueness. So how is that fun and interesting monsters?
