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4 Elements at the Core of 4e
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<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 7652083" data-attributes="member: 27160"><p>This is perhaps slightly true, but not by a huge margin. You might think of it in terms of PCs tending towards hitting on an 8, monsters hitting on a 10, but it's not as extreme as that (and modifiers, especially good positioning, make it much more fluid).</p><p></p><p>To give the PCs the edge they have other tools available. Spending healing surges during the battle is one - this extends the hits needed to drop a PC by one or two. Another is that they have more ability to "stick" monsters to the characters better able to take the punishment (defenders tend to have more hit points and higher defences, although just what mix of them varies with the specific class).</p><p></p><p>If the players leverage their advantages they can win an equal level battle quite easily, but they can't just take it for granted.</p><p></p><p>Fight duration is a critical control point, and more guidance on rules variants to modify it would have been very useful from day 1. Too long a duration and the session gets eaten up with just one big battle; too short a duration and no interesting decisions are really possible in the fight, and these moments of high tension are often the best moments to see some really deep roleplaying. Your character is perhaps best defined by what they do when the chips are down - and if they don't get time to blink at those times then there will be little chance for their character to be revealed.</p><p></p><p>Plus, on a simpler level, tactics only get interesting if the fight lasts more than 10 seconds...</p><p></p><p>Interesting rule of thumb; probably not a bad one.</p><p></p><p>I would note, though, that giving players between-turn actions, <em>as long as they all get them</em>, is another way to address this (and will allow more than 5 players - including the GM, who might even arguably count as more than one player/action - in the game).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 7652083, member: 27160"] This is perhaps slightly true, but not by a huge margin. You might think of it in terms of PCs tending towards hitting on an 8, monsters hitting on a 10, but it's not as extreme as that (and modifiers, especially good positioning, make it much more fluid). To give the PCs the edge they have other tools available. Spending healing surges during the battle is one - this extends the hits needed to drop a PC by one or two. Another is that they have more ability to "stick" monsters to the characters better able to take the punishment (defenders tend to have more hit points and higher defences, although just what mix of them varies with the specific class). If the players leverage their advantages they can win an equal level battle quite easily, but they can't just take it for granted. Fight duration is a critical control point, and more guidance on rules variants to modify it would have been very useful from day 1. Too long a duration and the session gets eaten up with just one big battle; too short a duration and no interesting decisions are really possible in the fight, and these moments of high tension are often the best moments to see some really deep roleplaying. Your character is perhaps best defined by what they do when the chips are down - and if they don't get time to blink at those times then there will be little chance for their character to be revealed. Plus, on a simpler level, tactics only get interesting if the fight lasts more than 10 seconds... Interesting rule of thumb; probably not a bad one. I would note, though, that giving players between-turn actions, [I]as long as they all get them[/I], is another way to address this (and will allow more than 5 players - including the GM, who might even arguably count as more than one player/action - in the game). [/QUOTE]
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