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Convincing 4th Edition players to consider 5th Edition
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5959406" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>But, by having mechanics the will automatically sideline your character, you are baking "rationing fun" into the mechanics. Take a poster child here - 3e rogue sneak attack.</p><p></p><p>Now, from a believability perspective, it makes perfect sense that your rogue can't sneak certain creatures. Fair enough. But, that means that there will be significant periods of time when your rogue character's effectiveness is hugely reduced - to the point where you aren't really doing much of anything - sorry, d6+2 points of damage once per round vs a CR 8 creature isn't really doing a whole lot.</p><p></p><p>Now, you didn't choose this. You had absolutely no say in this, other than the fact that you chose to play this class. The DM decided what creatures to use and the game designers decided that you're not tall enough for this ride.</p><p></p><p>To me, that's a poster child for mechanics that are not as good as they could be. If the rogue player chose to be less effective against certain opponents in exchange for something else, then fair enough. That's on him. But, he didn't have that choice. It was baked right into the class.</p><p></p><p>Now, it might not come up for several sessions. No worries. But, then you have a four hour session where you have five encounters in a row with undead (for example - maybe a zombie horde is attacking). The rogue player just got benched for virtually the entire session through no choice of his own.</p><p></p><p>How much is that "verisimitude" worth? Is it worth having someone ride the pines for four hours? To me, the answer is a resounding NO. Not being able to do a lot in a given encounter? Ok, that happens. Not a big deal. I have a character that just doesn't have the skill set to really contribute to this particular scenario. Cool, no worries. But the mechanics should never sideline players for hours on end.</p><p></p><p>And that's what unbalanced mechanics do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5959406, member: 22779"] But, by having mechanics the will automatically sideline your character, you are baking "rationing fun" into the mechanics. Take a poster child here - 3e rogue sneak attack. Now, from a believability perspective, it makes perfect sense that your rogue can't sneak certain creatures. Fair enough. But, that means that there will be significant periods of time when your rogue character's effectiveness is hugely reduced - to the point where you aren't really doing much of anything - sorry, d6+2 points of damage once per round vs a CR 8 creature isn't really doing a whole lot. Now, you didn't choose this. You had absolutely no say in this, other than the fact that you chose to play this class. The DM decided what creatures to use and the game designers decided that you're not tall enough for this ride. To me, that's a poster child for mechanics that are not as good as they could be. If the rogue player chose to be less effective against certain opponents in exchange for something else, then fair enough. That's on him. But, he didn't have that choice. It was baked right into the class. Now, it might not come up for several sessions. No worries. But, then you have a four hour session where you have five encounters in a row with undead (for example - maybe a zombie horde is attacking). The rogue player just got benched for virtually the entire session through no choice of his own. How much is that "verisimitude" worth? Is it worth having someone ride the pines for four hours? To me, the answer is a resounding NO. Not being able to do a lot in a given encounter? Ok, that happens. Not a big deal. I have a character that just doesn't have the skill set to really contribute to this particular scenario. Cool, no worries. But the mechanics should never sideline players for hours on end. And that's what unbalanced mechanics do. [/QUOTE]
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