frankthedm
First Post
4E's defenses were fairly good.
But I never again want to play a D&D game where I fail a save and essentially sit and watch my friend's play for the rest of the night while I can do nothing. NEVER. The mere thought of 5e going back to something like that makes me want to unleash a torrent of profanity.
I am the opposite. There are several things, in my opinion, that should take one out of the fight and, potentially, the campaign unless countered with magic- Petrification, Polymorphs, certain mind affecting attacks, banished/transported to other planes etc. Not doing so makes want me want to unleash profanities and did with 4e.
What about allowing a save every other round for really nasty effects like being turned into stone or a dragon's fear aura. Like you said, those effects should be a whole lot harder to shrug off. And I don't think a penalty is enough.2) Allow the save each round. Particularly nasty effects could apply an ever-reducing penalty to the save. So, the first round you save at -5, then -4, -3, -2, -1, no mod, +1, +2... That way, you get a greater likelihood of the effect lasting more than a couple of rounds (but probably no guarantee), you still get a save every round, and you also eliminate the problem of "stun locks" that 4e had.
(That said, effects that apply any modifier to a save should be extremely rare.)
And right here I think might be one of the biggest potential hurdles the designers will have to figure out going forward... figuring out the rules for just how fast/easy it is to instantly remove/kill someone from the game. Because there are quite a number of players like you, GregK, who seem to want insta-death effects... just like there seems to be players who want 1st level characters to potentially start with only 1-3 hit points. As I'm sure that there are players who are steadfast in their desire for -10 rather than -half HP to be the bleeding out point.
It's a dial for the "gritty" aspects of the game that will be interesting to see if they can put that insta-death or virtual insta-death side-by-side with more moderate dying rules and keep both sides somewhat happy.
In addition, PCs are subject to more attacks than the individual opponent, since PCs are subject to attacks in every combat, while their opponents are most likely subject to the PCs attacks for only one combat.
So the PCs suffer more from effects like daze, stun, etc.
Th
A medusa effect could be: target is paralyzed and turning to stone. Each turn he may make a FORT save to try to shrug off the effects. If he passes his save, he may act normally next turn. If he fails twice, he turns to stone and will remain that way until the medusa is killed or someone casts a heal spell (any type) on him.