Corbon I know you are one of the few who is able to make sense of the rules printed as they are (with few corrections) - but maybe there is also a misprint in the basic game, because ffg never thought of movementissues with large monsters and obstacles. In a thematic sense it would be more convincing if large monster would be able to simply climb over rubble and ignoring the little stones in the way and also to be of intelligence to avoid water by simply stepping over it. Therefore it might be a issue that with the term "occupy" they also ment entering spaces with obstacles.

In my games so far it is also more convieniece if you apply that rule thislike, or in certain scenarios large monsters would be trapped by the map itself or any played crushing block from the overlord.

Morthai said:

It is quite clear that FFG understand the rule to mean that large monsters cannot enter impassable terrain because they made a specific change to an outdoor encounter rule because Large monsters could not do anything on the map with impassable trees (whereas if they ignored the impassable trees unless all spaces were in trees then there would be no problem and no need for FG to change the rule and make those trees passable for large monsters only.).

Thematic arguments are entirely unconvincing. An opposite thematic argument can always be made. It does not make sense that a large monster can squeeze it's bulk through a narrow space to avoid impassable terrain - but it does make sense that it can step around the edges of, or over the top of, lesser problems like lava pools, mud, pits etc. In those cases there is still 'space' for the monsters bulk to physically go through (water has the feared bloodsquids).

Convenience is another issue. Large monsters have many disadvantages and few advantages.

Yes I had misinterpreted the large monster section of the general rules. Thank you all for the clarification.

Morthai said:

That may be your opinion.  To me, it makes no thematic sense that a large creature would be able to "climb over" the rubble so easily if smaller creatures can't do the same.  Large creatures only have less room to move around, so how could they fit where smaller creatures can't? Also, keep in mind that - barring a very few exceptions - all of the dungeons take place indoors, so there's a ceiling somewhere above the rubble that also needs to be contended with.

Likewise concerning water - if it was just a case of stepping over, smaller creatures would be able to jump it as easily as they jump pits of equal size.  FFG has already given us a thematic scapegoat for water - it's those darned bloodsquids.  They can grab large creatures just as easily as they do smaller ones, so in actual fact, the reason nobody crosses water spaces is not because they lack the intelligence to go around.  it's because they have the intelligence to avoid being eaten by bloodsquids.

Descent as a whole has many rulings that defy common sense and thematic explanation.  So much so that most experienced players don't even bother trying anymore.  The situation of large monster movement is actually quite easy to explain thematically, the only problem is you can use thematic explanations to cover basically ANY ruling you might come up with, so these kinds of arguments sort of lose their weight.