Design design design

Along a similar vein to D's character design thread, the monster design for 4th ed is also vastly simplified.
Even before my realisation of the DM's toolbox in the DMG, I found it easy to look at other monsters of similar level and work off that. In 3rd ed, with the large number of different publications and the definite increase of power of things as time went by, it became a struggle to find any real semblance of balance in ones own creature design.
If anyone has read the description of the storm elemental in the MM3 they'll know what i mean. That creature's opening ability is already a party killer.
The table provided near the back of the DMG for 4th ed is a godsend for those who like to make something a little off centre, becoming more and more useful as players get to know the monsters you throw at them and hence are easily bored by them (or so i feel)
It will only be my 4th ever session of 4th ed but already i've crafted some delightful surprises for the PCs, not that they know any of the monsters from the MM at all yet.

However, i do find that the trap component of the DMG is rather lacking, as it was in the DMG for 3rd ed. This time round there are some tables that help but for some reasons i continually draw blanks as to designing interesting traps, despite loving what they add to an encounter.

Bah, it will work out.