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DMG's definition of "Deadly" is much less deadly than mine: Data Aggregation?
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6704659" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>In spite of my belief that the DMG guidelines are quite easy, I think the designers got it spot on anyway. It's more fun to know that you beat a 20th level encounter at 3rd level ("I must be awesome!") than to know that you lost to a 9th level encounter at 14th level ("I must stink"). Ergo, it makes sense for the 5E designers to simply err on the easy side, especially when you're going for the casual gamer market as 5E designers like Mearls have said. (Casual = many demands on your time, not much time to think about 5E tactics/strategy when not at the table.)</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, human psychology plays into it too. I hypothesize if you ask players to evaluate subjective risk, they'll focus in on the wrong things and overestimate the deadliness of a given combat--if you fight a bulette at 4th level and that bulette crits someone for 58 points of damage in one bite, from 40 HP into death save territory, I bet you that the average player will <em>feel</em> as if that was a deadly combat even if they kill the bulette that round, even though the PC actually wasn't in any signficant danger of death at all by the DMG "Deadly" description since the bulette gets only one attack per round and has trouble finishing off a downed PC who is being healed via Healing Word. The player might tell you that it was a Deadly fight but if you look at it analytically it is actually only Hard at best, even if that worst-case outcome occurred.</p><p></p><p>In short, feedback on these and other forums persuades me that the DMG tables are oriented in a position of maximum fun for most players. Take a look at these poll results for example:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?464707-(Poll)-Combat-Difficulty" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?464707-(Poll)-Combat-Difficulty</a></p><p></p><p>You <em>could</em> rebuild the DMG tables so that the Medium fights which people are enjoying today are labelled as "Trivial" and the Hard fights are labelled as "Easy" and the Deadly fights are labelled as "Medium", but that could damage people's fun without actually changing the mechanics of the game in any positive way.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6704659, member: 6787650"] In spite of my belief that the DMG guidelines are quite easy, I think the designers got it spot on anyway. It's more fun to know that you beat a 20th level encounter at 3rd level ("I must be awesome!") than to know that you lost to a 9th level encounter at 14th level ("I must stink"). Ergo, it makes sense for the 5E designers to simply err on the easy side, especially when you're going for the casual gamer market as 5E designers like Mearls have said. (Casual = many demands on your time, not much time to think about 5E tactics/strategy when not at the table.) Furthermore, human psychology plays into it too. I hypothesize if you ask players to evaluate subjective risk, they'll focus in on the wrong things and overestimate the deadliness of a given combat--if you fight a bulette at 4th level and that bulette crits someone for 58 points of damage in one bite, from 40 HP into death save territory, I bet you that the average player will [I]feel[/I] as if that was a deadly combat even if they kill the bulette that round, even though the PC actually wasn't in any signficant danger of death at all by the DMG "Deadly" description since the bulette gets only one attack per round and has trouble finishing off a downed PC who is being healed via Healing Word. The player might tell you that it was a Deadly fight but if you look at it analytically it is actually only Hard at best, even if that worst-case outcome occurred. In short, feedback on these and other forums persuades me that the DMG tables are oriented in a position of maximum fun for most players. Take a look at these poll results for example: [URL]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?464707-(Poll)-Combat-Difficulty[/URL] You [I]could[/I] rebuild the DMG tables so that the Medium fights which people are enjoying today are labelled as "Trivial" and the Hard fights are labelled as "Easy" and the Deadly fights are labelled as "Medium", but that could damage people's fun without actually changing the mechanics of the game in any positive way. [/QUOTE]
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DMG's definition of "Deadly" is much less deadly than mine: Data Aggregation?
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