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Rule-of-Three: 06/19/2012
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<blockquote data-quote="Dragoslav" data-source="post: 5949544" data-attributes="member: 6690267"><p>pemerton, you make excellent points. In fact, before reading your posts, I never realized what it was that I liked so much about 4e combat. It's not the complexity for the sake of complexity, but complexity as a means of more fully realizing a character. After all, I really enjoy the simplicity of the 5e playtest rules. The risk that accompanies mechanical sameness and simplicity is in characters of a certain class all feeling the same. Ironically, it makes combat seem like the neglected third pillar of the three-pillar perspective: In the interaction pillar, you can distinguish a character as a brash fighter or a craven dirty fighter, but in combat they play out the same: "I hit it. I hit it again."</p><p></p><p>As a contrast, consider the mechanics of these two powers, the warlord's Fearless Rescue and the Unabashed Treachery power from the Disgraced Noble theme:</p><p>Fearless Rescue: When an ally falls below 0 HP, you move up to the attacking enemy and make an attack with 2x weapon damage. The ally spends a healing surge and regains extra HP based on how many opportunity attacks you provoked while coming to their rescue.</p><p>Unabashed Treachery: When an attack hits you, you choose to have it instead hit an ally of yours. The attacking enemy grants combat advantage to the both of you.</p><p></p><p>They're both immediate reactions/interrupts, so they add complexity to the system, and they're both mechanically appealing for their effects, but what they're really good for is realizing a character in the realm of combat. In interaction, a character bluffs his way through a guard checkpoint by pretending to be a visiting ambassador; in exploration, he pulls a lockpick from his cravat and picks open a dungeon door; and in combat, he pulls an ally into the path of a oncoming arrow --> this guy is clearly an aristocrat with a shady background.</p><p></p><p>As much as I enjoy tactical combat, if the "tactical combat module" turns out to amount to just "I charge it. Now I bull rush and push it one square. Oh, it's facing away from me, so now I hit it... with combat advantage," then I'm not sure whether I'll prefer that or the fast-paced simplicity of the core combat rules, if it means getting through combat and into interaction and exploration faster.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dragoslav, post: 5949544, member: 6690267"] pemerton, you make excellent points. In fact, before reading your posts, I never realized what it was that I liked so much about 4e combat. It's not the complexity for the sake of complexity, but complexity as a means of more fully realizing a character. After all, I really enjoy the simplicity of the 5e playtest rules. The risk that accompanies mechanical sameness and simplicity is in characters of a certain class all feeling the same. Ironically, it makes combat seem like the neglected third pillar of the three-pillar perspective: In the interaction pillar, you can distinguish a character as a brash fighter or a craven dirty fighter, but in combat they play out the same: "I hit it. I hit it again." As a contrast, consider the mechanics of these two powers, the warlord's Fearless Rescue and the Unabashed Treachery power from the Disgraced Noble theme: Fearless Rescue: When an ally falls below 0 HP, you move up to the attacking enemy and make an attack with 2x weapon damage. The ally spends a healing surge and regains extra HP based on how many opportunity attacks you provoked while coming to their rescue. Unabashed Treachery: When an attack hits you, you choose to have it instead hit an ally of yours. The attacking enemy grants combat advantage to the both of you. They're both immediate reactions/interrupts, so they add complexity to the system, and they're both mechanically appealing for their effects, but what they're really good for is realizing a character in the realm of combat. In interaction, a character bluffs his way through a guard checkpoint by pretending to be a visiting ambassador; in exploration, he pulls a lockpick from his cravat and picks open a dungeon door; and in combat, he pulls an ally into the path of a oncoming arrow --> this guy is clearly an aristocrat with a shady background. As much as I enjoy tactical combat, if the "tactical combat module" turns out to amount to just "I charge it. Now I bull rush and push it one square. Oh, it's facing away from me, so now I hit it... with combat advantage," then I'm not sure whether I'll prefer that or the fast-paced simplicity of the core combat rules, if it means getting through combat and into interaction and exploration faster. [/QUOTE]
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