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So we might mess up, so what? Forked Thread: Fudging the Numbers in 3ed
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<blockquote data-quote="Stoat" data-source="post: 4620794" data-attributes="member: 16786"><p>Well, I usually cooked up my monsters from the books rather than trying to wing 'em . . . </p><p></p><p>IME, things that make an encounter "go south" in 3.X include (a) Armor Class absurdly easy or absurdly difficult for PC's to hit, (b) DC's for special abilities are absurdly easy or absurdly difficult for PC's to hit, and (c) Saving throw bonuses make it absurdly easy or absurdly difficult for monsters to save against PC spells. You can't really fix these on the fly without the players noticing (Hey, why did Kent save on a 15? I rolled a 19, and I'm dead!) and I don't like the player's noticing when I fudge the game.</p><p></p><p>Now I played 3.X from the day it was released until the day 4E was released, and I enjoyed it and I'd still play it. I had plenty of 3.X encounters go south even though I built them using the guidelines in the books. The ones I could, I fixed on the fly. The ones I couldn't, I chalked up to lessons learned and moved on. I am not a hat3r.</p><p></p><p>Late in the edition, somebody pointed me to an article by Monte Cook about how to improvise in 3E. It was full of advice like, "Assume that a monster's Attack Bonus is equal to X% of the party's level +Y" and "Figure that a monter's AC is party level +Z." It was very helpful and showed the underlying assumptions of the game in a way that I hadn't seen them before. 4E put that advice in the DMG, and I'm happy about that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stoat, post: 4620794, member: 16786"] Well, I usually cooked up my monsters from the books rather than trying to wing 'em . . . IME, things that make an encounter "go south" in 3.X include (a) Armor Class absurdly easy or absurdly difficult for PC's to hit, (b) DC's for special abilities are absurdly easy or absurdly difficult for PC's to hit, and (c) Saving throw bonuses make it absurdly easy or absurdly difficult for monsters to save against PC spells. You can't really fix these on the fly without the players noticing (Hey, why did Kent save on a 15? I rolled a 19, and I'm dead!) and I don't like the player's noticing when I fudge the game. Now I played 3.X from the day it was released until the day 4E was released, and I enjoyed it and I'd still play it. I had plenty of 3.X encounters go south even though I built them using the guidelines in the books. The ones I could, I fixed on the fly. The ones I couldn't, I chalked up to lessons learned and moved on. I am not a hat3r. Late in the edition, somebody pointed me to an article by Monte Cook about how to improvise in 3E. It was full of advice like, "Assume that a monster's Attack Bonus is equal to X% of the party's level +Y" and "Figure that a monter's AC is party level +Z." It was very helpful and showed the underlying assumptions of the game in a way that I hadn't seen them before. 4E put that advice in the DMG, and I'm happy about that. [/QUOTE]
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So we might mess up, so what? Forked Thread: Fudging the Numbers in 3ed
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