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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Why the HP Threshold on Spells is a Bad Idea
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6020683" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>I agree the h.p. mechanic is poor. I don't agree that every harmful spell needs either an attack or defense roll, though most should; a hypothetical spell that does, say, 2 points damage to everything in the area of effect should be automatic with no save. Ditto a spell that causes everything in the area to lose its next round of actions (or to act randomly, whatever).</p><p>Spells should have a duration - fail your initial save and you're affected for that length of time. Save every round is fine for a few spells but should not be the norm.</p><p></p><p>Charm and Suggestion already have the restrictions you want, at least in 1e. I didn't know these had ever gone away.</p><p></p><p>As for level determining immunity or not, a nice way to gradate this is to pick a level (or HD number, for monsters). That level gets a straight save to negate. The level below gets a save at -4. Level below that saves at -8. Lower levels get no save. Level +1 saves at +4, level +2 saves at +8, higher levels are immune.</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 6020683, member: 29398"] I agree the h.p. mechanic is poor. I don't agree that every harmful spell needs either an attack or defense roll, though most should; a hypothetical spell that does, say, 2 points damage to everything in the area of effect should be automatic with no save. Ditto a spell that causes everything in the area to lose its next round of actions (or to act randomly, whatever). Spells should have a duration - fail your initial save and you're affected for that length of time. Save every round is fine for a few spells but should not be the norm. Charm and Suggestion already have the restrictions you want, at least in 1e. I didn't know these had ever gone away. As for level determining immunity or not, a nice way to gradate this is to pick a level (or HD number, for monsters). That level gets a straight save to negate. The level below gets a save at -4. Level below that saves at -8. Lower levels get no save. Level +1 saves at +4, level +2 saves at +8, higher levels are immune. Lanefan [/QUOTE]
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Why the HP Threshold on Spells is a Bad Idea
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