Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The One Hour D&D Game
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5856793" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Believe me, I used traps in my 4E games as well... but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that unless traps are powered up <em>to be</em> deadly or disabling (in other words, designed to possibly disable or kill a PC outright)... any damage suffered doesn't get "washed away" once the trap has gone off (provided the group has a few minutes afterwards to recover.)</p><p></p><p>The main difference between lost healing surges 'down the road' and lost hit points 'down the road' is that those lost hit points from the trap lower the total pool of hit points in the party you need to design your next fight around. The same encounter the party next faces becomes more of a threat, because their hit point pool is less. As a DM, you don't have to wade through ALL of the party's hit points in an effort to make an encounter seem challenging (which basically means trying to get them to 0). Thus, anything that can be done to help speed up combat (at least in my opinion) is a good thing.</p><p></p><p>So for example... if the party is invading a cave with a trap followed by a band of orcs... if the two encounters <em>combined</em> cause damage together that might be a significant challenge (because damage suffered during the trap is still there when facing the orcs)... that makes the combat with the orcs faster. As opposed to a trap which causes damage but which is instantly erased by the spending of healing surges, followed by the orc fight with the PCs back to full hit points.</p><p></p><p>Dealing with the trap in both cases took the same amount of time... but the fight versus the orcs was longer in the second scenario, because the DM had to use more powerful or a higher number of orcs to challenge them. Thus the monsters <em>also</em> have more hit points the party has to whittle down to end the encounter. What might've been a 3 round fight because both the party and monsters had lower HP pools... now has to be a 5 round fight because of all the extra HP floating around.</p><p></p><p>********</p><p></p><p>It all comes down to the total number of hit points a PC or party has at their disposal between 'days' or 'extended rests'. In 1E/2E... you had the PC's HP total and the couple(?) of healing spells the cleric might have prayed for for the day. In 3E, you had the PC's hit points plus whatever hit points regained from the cleric's healing spells plus what you got from the use of healing wands. In 4E, it's all of the PC's hit points plus anywhere from 6 to 12 healing surges of HP per character, of which 1 Second Wind per PC and 2 Healing Words <em>at minimum</em> are probably expected to show up. That's a LOT of hit points to have to wade through in an effort to make an encounter seem challenging. It's not insurmountable by any means... but it's also not usually <em>quickly</em> done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 5856793, member: 7006"] Believe me, I used traps in my 4E games as well... but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that unless traps are powered up [I]to be[/I] deadly or disabling (in other words, designed to possibly disable or kill a PC outright)... any damage suffered doesn't get "washed away" once the trap has gone off (provided the group has a few minutes afterwards to recover.) The main difference between lost healing surges 'down the road' and lost hit points 'down the road' is that those lost hit points from the trap lower the total pool of hit points in the party you need to design your next fight around. The same encounter the party next faces becomes more of a threat, because their hit point pool is less. As a DM, you don't have to wade through ALL of the party's hit points in an effort to make an encounter seem challenging (which basically means trying to get them to 0). Thus, anything that can be done to help speed up combat (at least in my opinion) is a good thing. So for example... if the party is invading a cave with a trap followed by a band of orcs... if the two encounters [I]combined[/I] cause damage together that might be a significant challenge (because damage suffered during the trap is still there when facing the orcs)... that makes the combat with the orcs faster. As opposed to a trap which causes damage but which is instantly erased by the spending of healing surges, followed by the orc fight with the PCs back to full hit points. Dealing with the trap in both cases took the same amount of time... but the fight versus the orcs was longer in the second scenario, because the DM had to use more powerful or a higher number of orcs to challenge them. Thus the monsters [I]also[/I] have more hit points the party has to whittle down to end the encounter. What might've been a 3 round fight because both the party and monsters had lower HP pools... now has to be a 5 round fight because of all the extra HP floating around. ******** It all comes down to the total number of hit points a PC or party has at their disposal between 'days' or 'extended rests'. In 1E/2E... you had the PC's HP total and the couple(?) of healing spells the cleric might have prayed for for the day. In 3E, you had the PC's hit points plus whatever hit points regained from the cleric's healing spells plus what you got from the use of healing wands. In 4E, it's all of the PC's hit points plus anywhere from 6 to 12 healing surges of HP per character, of which 1 Second Wind per PC and 2 Healing Words [I]at minimum[/I] are probably expected to show up. That's a LOT of hit points to have to wade through in an effort to make an encounter seem challenging. It's not insurmountable by any means... but it's also not usually [I]quickly[/I] done. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The One Hour D&D Game
Top