I would point out the 2d6 for hp for goblins...I know 4 DMs as well as myself (sorry we dont all know each other 4 is what I have) and through the streams I watch and DMs on youtube and all that...I have never seen anyone roll for creatures. It would be such a pain in the ass. You might have 6 goblins with 2 hp. The variability of the encounter then makes you say "well thats too weak, lets just keep adding them until its challenging" because youre a DM and you know how numbers work and you know what your PCs are so you have a prettty dialed in understanding of what it will take. It would also make you decide if you want pack tactics or individual initiative depending on the HP and number of gobbos and you run the risk of a band of 12 goblins TPKing on a good initiative because of damage output instead of just 5 being a reasonable fight that has a more controlled swing.
If it says 2d6 its 7. Hobgoblin is 2d8+2 thats 11. You do the average, then round the hit dice (down), then halve that number and add it to the average. Young Red dragon? 17D10+85. Which is 17*5+85 = 170. 17 rounded is 16/2 8 = 178. If a DM adjusts bosses and stuff like that, fine. Your rank and file is gonna be straight out of the book though, so I wouldn't use hit die rolling as a factor, it just doesn't happen unless the DM has said ALL goblins in this encounter have 10 instead of 7. No one manages that crap by hand, its prohibitively time consuming to run and track the minis to their sheets.
And that is very nice and all and sure, for a table it makes sense because it would take forever to roll the HP of every single goblin and there is no real reason to, but the rules don't say, "Goblins have 7 hp" it says, "Goblins have 2d6" hp. A Goblin can have anywhere within that HP range of 2 to 12 and it will be per the official rules. You know the great thing about computers though, they could roll the HP for every single monster in the game in under a second and it would not slow down gameplay at all. I am personally fine with Goblins that have 15 AC and 12 HP, as per the rules if Larian decides they only want to use maximum HP rolls for monsters. Sounds good?
The reasons you are not addressing all the items in this thread are the reasons you cannot see the problem.
I brought 3 mechanics and how they intertwine into a new metagame. Addressing solely one wouldn’t make it, although the bloat itself is bad enough. The only way to increase damage output of that spells is to upcast it and that’s why the effectiveness of the spells decreased comparing to dnd5e.
I advice to read the whole thread before spotting the word “blot” and start to rage against it.
The whole thread was all about spell value & effectiveness and you’ve failed to point why they’re still effective compared to dnd5e.
If you can point that and if they’re still reasonable other than just distilling rage, I’d might review my thoughts about it.
There’s plenty of spells mentioned through the post, so get one of them and tell me how the game highlight their potential.
No, the problem is
you are not reading my post. Your post started off with the assertion that monsters have bloated HP and then went on to use that assertion, combined with some other rule changes, to make some claims about spell efficiency. Those claims about spell efficiency by the way, are probably true regardless of whether or not HP is bloated, I am not here to argue about that. I am just tired of the
outright, blatant lie that monster HP is bloated in this game. Here is a screenshot for you of a fight where you engage every single goblin in the goblin camp.
![[Linked Image]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326032679029964800/772453821967237130/unknown.png)
Goblins have, as per the rules, 2d6 HP. There are a sum total of 2 goblins in this picture with have more than 12 hitpoints. You know which ones those are? They are the 2 Goblins which have player levels and they are intentionally modified to have more statistics to represent the fact that they are more like "boss" encounters.
You made the assertion, in your post, that monster HP is bloated in this game. The burden of proof is on
you to show that this is the case. I wish you luck with that, because I can quote those very rules which you are complaining Larian is not following, which shows that the HP values these Goblins have is perfectly valid,
as per the rules as written. You should probably complain their AC is too low though, if anything, there is
not enough bloat and they should have 12 HP and 15 AC, because that would be a Goblin of this type implemented by the rules. Saying, "monsters have bloated HP" does not make it automatically so. You need to
prove it. If there was actual HP bloat btw, I would be right behind you complaining, but there isn't and encounters feel relatively fine in terms of monster HP.
And here is the thing. Larian is the DM here, maybe, perhaps, they do not want this encounter to be won using the list of utility spells which you would prefer to have used. They are the one designing this setting, not you. Either way, whilst your complaints about rule changes for backstabs/height are perfectly valid, I am still waiting for someone to show me an example of a legitimately bloated creature, which does not have a very valid reason for having higher stats (for example, being a boss encounter).
