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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 6665646" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>I disagree with you on a number of counts. </p><p></p><p>Runequest combat is dangerous from it's swinginess,hit locations nasty criticals and tends to push players into going for ambushes, superior numbers and dirty tricks and avoiding a fair fight at all costs, if they want their PCs to survive. Which isn't the sort of "heroic action" I prefer. The rules are more complex than early D&D, but not so much for later editions of the game.</p><p></p><p>The sort of heroic fantasy that interests me, which includes questing and module play typically requires reasonable PC continuity despite being in regular combat encounters. This either means combat is actually less dangerous, less swingy for the PCs or the DM fudges to achieve the same goal. Abstract D&D hit points , no hit locations, and relatively easy healing with no consequences for wounds make D&D better for regular combat than Runequest.</p><p></p><p>I suspect it comes down to preferences. I have always played and now run D&D as a game of heroic adventure, and will continue to do so. Arguably the game has evolved through many of the editions to make "heroic adventure" play more viable, though not in a consistent way. I can make D&D work to support the sort of gameplay I'm interested in, but it does mean downplaying some of the classic features of D&D while emphasising others, many that were there from the beginning.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 6665646, member: 2656"] I disagree with you on a number of counts. Runequest combat is dangerous from it's swinginess,hit locations nasty criticals and tends to push players into going for ambushes, superior numbers and dirty tricks and avoiding a fair fight at all costs, if they want their PCs to survive. Which isn't the sort of "heroic action" I prefer. The rules are more complex than early D&D, but not so much for later editions of the game. The sort of heroic fantasy that interests me, which includes questing and module play typically requires reasonable PC continuity despite being in regular combat encounters. This either means combat is actually less dangerous, less swingy for the PCs or the DM fudges to achieve the same goal. Abstract D&D hit points , no hit locations, and relatively easy healing with no consequences for wounds make D&D better for regular combat than Runequest. I suspect it comes down to preferences. I have always played and now run D&D as a game of heroic adventure, and will continue to do so. Arguably the game has evolved through many of the editions to make "heroic adventure" play more viable, though not in a consistent way. I can make D&D work to support the sort of gameplay I'm interested in, but it does mean downplaying some of the classic features of D&D while emphasising others, many that were there from the beginning. [/QUOTE]
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What makes us care about combat balance in D&D?
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