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<blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 7345897" data-attributes="member: 1165"><p>It was pretty swingy, and I liked 3e's cyclical initiative better. But I know there's fans of round-by-round initiative; the system did have a few benefits.</p><p></p><p>I think it existed to help balance magic vs non-magic. Powerful spells often took a long time to cast (relative to the speed of a weapon) ... but still allowed the spell to be cast within a round. Some spells (eg Power Word X) used casting time as a balancing technique; they were <em>faster</em> than other insta-cripple/death spells, hence the higher level as an additional balancing technique.</p><p></p><p>However non-combat actions didn't have "weapon/casting" speeds, and I don't feel like looking up the speed of an unarmed strike again. (That latter part speaks more of 2e's poorly-organized corebooks, perhaps, than a case against weapon speed by itself.)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Granting" magic where it's unwarranted is a bit of a battleground.</p><p></p><p>In this case, magical alignment language become a shibboleth. You could guess someone's alignment by asking them a question in your alignment language, and if they don't answer fast enough... Poor chaotic but good-hearted fellow, being told to swear an oath in court. In Lawful. You could decide if you think someone is trustworthy by asking them a single question. If they refuse or clearly don't understand your question, then they're not trustworthy.</p><p></p><p>People have used techniques like this in real life in massacres and warfare. I think it's too easy to tell someone's alignment in D&D already, now anyone could do it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(Psi)SeveredHead, post: 7345897, member: 1165"] It was pretty swingy, and I liked 3e's cyclical initiative better. But I know there's fans of round-by-round initiative; the system did have a few benefits. I think it existed to help balance magic vs non-magic. Powerful spells often took a long time to cast (relative to the speed of a weapon) ... but still allowed the spell to be cast within a round. Some spells (eg Power Word X) used casting time as a balancing technique; they were [i]faster[/i] than other insta-cripple/death spells, hence the higher level as an additional balancing technique. However non-combat actions didn't have "weapon/casting" speeds, and I don't feel like looking up the speed of an unarmed strike again. (That latter part speaks more of 2e's poorly-organized corebooks, perhaps, than a case against weapon speed by itself.) "Granting" magic where it's unwarranted is a bit of a battleground. In this case, magical alignment language become a shibboleth. You could guess someone's alignment by asking them a question in your alignment language, and if they don't answer fast enough... Poor chaotic but good-hearted fellow, being told to swear an oath in court. In Lawful. You could decide if you think someone is trustworthy by asking them a single question. If they refuse or clearly don't understand your question, then they're not trustworthy. People have used techniques like this in real life in massacres and warfare. I think it's too easy to tell someone's alignment in D&D already, now anyone could do it. [/QUOTE]
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