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Why I dislike Milestone XP
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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7385923" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>That's not a 5E thing. At least, it's not a thing past level 3 or so. In any case, a TPK is also not an interesting outcome. (If everyone dies to some random encounter, then that's going to feel like everything leading up to it was a waste of time.)</p><p></p><p>As a general rule of game design, you don't <em>want</em> there to be a significant chance of TPK in <em>most</em> encounters, or else statistically a TPK <em>will</em> happen due to random chance. <em>Most</em> encounters are guaranteed wins for the party, with the only question being how much it costs them, because running out of resources means they have to run away and/or might actually die.</p><p>If you remove free healing from the equation, then any fight <em>matters</em> as long as anyone takes <em>any</em> damage. If that goblin gets a lucky shot and your barbarian takes ten damage, then that reduces their margin of error against the end boss, later on. If the barbarian recklessly charges into every fight and takes a <em>lot</em> of unnecessary damage, then they will eventually need to hang back and start tossing javelins instead of swinging their greataxe; and you <em>really</em> don't want them to be reduced to that, if things start going badly or a boss shows up unexpectedly.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, while 5E is <em>nominally</em> built on the attrition model (compared to 4E, which was built on the above-mentioned every-encounter-might-possibly-kill-you model), they've thrown in <em>so much</em> free healing that attrition takes <em>forever</em> before anyone starts to feel it. You can have six encounters in a day, with the party taking damage in every encounter, and they'll <em>still</em> be at full power when they get to the boss.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7385923, member: 6775031"] That's not a 5E thing. At least, it's not a thing past level 3 or so. In any case, a TPK is also not an interesting outcome. (If everyone dies to some random encounter, then that's going to feel like everything leading up to it was a waste of time.) As a general rule of game design, you don't [I]want[/I] there to be a significant chance of TPK in [I]most[/I] encounters, or else statistically a TPK [I]will[/I] happen due to random chance. [I]Most[/I] encounters are guaranteed wins for the party, with the only question being how much it costs them, because running out of resources means they have to run away and/or might actually die. If you remove free healing from the equation, then any fight [I]matters[/I] as long as anyone takes [I]any[/I] damage. If that goblin gets a lucky shot and your barbarian takes ten damage, then that reduces their margin of error against the end boss, later on. If the barbarian recklessly charges into every fight and takes a [I]lot[/I] of unnecessary damage, then they will eventually need to hang back and start tossing javelins instead of swinging their greataxe; and you [I]really[/I] don't want them to be reduced to that, if things start going badly or a boss shows up unexpectedly. Unfortunately, while 5E is [I]nominally[/I] built on the attrition model (compared to 4E, which was built on the above-mentioned every-encounter-might-possibly-kill-you model), they've thrown in [I]so much[/I] free healing that attrition takes [I]forever[/I] before anyone starts to feel it. You can have six encounters in a day, with the party taking damage in every encounter, and they'll [I]still[/I] be at full power when they get to the boss. [/QUOTE]
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