D&D 5E I Don't Like Damage On A Miss

[Herschel]

Thank you.

 

[pemerton]

I'm glad you're willing to compromise, even if I'm for something that's not quite as quickI personally don't like the focus on HP/damage over attack bonus/AC

It's a subtle issue, though, because it's about swinginess - Reaper reduces swinginess, whereas something ike Power Attack increase it. And swinginess, in turn, affects pacing, as well as things like survivability, replayability, etc.

That's why I think it would be better to have multiple options filling the same story space, rather than forcing every group who want to use that part of the story space to also go for a uniform swinginess, pacing etc.

 

[IanB]

Or, if all combatants are doing this in combat (such as you suggest),why is the reaper singled out as the only one who gets to have these efforts acknowledged as having an effect?

Because he's better at it, which is represented mechanically by the feat and its effects.

 

[Fifth Element]

Because he's better at it, which is represented mechanically by the feat and its effects.

Indeed, that objection is essentially an objection to feats in general.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

So you think if a wizard casts fireball there should be no save for half, basically everyone has evasion?

Yeah, I'll play too... what nonsense!

Why do people think that a fireball going off directly in your character's area is "missing"? That's not missing. [Of course the real disparity here is that an archer needs to roll to hit where as the wizard's fireball pea has unerring accuracy.]

In fact aside from the accuracy thing, the wizard might have it fairly hard here having to get through spell resistance, fire resistance, and even then it affords the target a save for half, not counting cover, evasion or improved evasion. Imagine if a fighter had to put up with their targets getting a chance to halve the damage every time they hit?

The crucial difference here is that a fireball may deal partial damage on a hit. The reaper automatically deals partial damage on a miss. The two situations are different regardless of trotting out the magic versus mundane stuff.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Herremann the Wise]

What the playtest document says is that when you've lost half your hit points, you have sustained some kind of physical injury, however minor.

That does not mean (as I've seen claimed elsewhere, not sure if it was you) that every loss of hit points after that point must be interpreted as physical damage. The halfway point is "first blood", but that doesn't mean you suddenly lose your ability to defend yourself. "Second blood" might only be the blow that kills you.

I agree; must have been somebody else. The description does not detail this one way or the other. A bloodied character is not penalized so it is hard to say one way or the other whether any subsequent hits are physical damage; only the one that puts them to zero or below.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Because he's better at it, which is represented mechanically by the feat and its effects.

But in terms of the flavour attached, most combatants are doing this as described in the full argument. To say that someone does this better would be OK if everyone did x but the reaper gets to do x+y. But the reaper gets something for this while everyone else gets absolutely nothing. This is where I'm saying that the flavour does not mesh.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[IanB]

But in terms of the flavour attached, most combatants are doing this as described in the full argument. To say that someone does this better would be OK if everyone did x but the reaper gets to do x+y. But the reaper gets something for this while everyone else gets absolutely nothing. This is where I'm saying that the flavour does not mesh.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

Everyone does get to do X flavor-wise; it is just that in the case of the average adventurer, X rounds down to zero.

Mechanically things can only get so granular before they become annoying to play.

 

[JamesonCourage]

It's a subtle issue, though, because it's about swinginess - Reaper reduces swinginess, whereas something ike Power Attack increase it. And swinginess, in turn, affects pacing, as well as things like survivability, replayability, etc.

That's why I think it would be better to have multiple options filling the same story space, rather than forcing every group who want to use that part of the story space to also go for a uniform swinginess, pacing etc.

This is a really good point. I know that my preferences on pacing are quite different from other groups. Having a "dial" on this sort of thing would be hard to incorporate into the core rules, I'd imagine, but enter "dials"...

Wish the XP system was back up. As always, play what you like

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Everyone does get to do X flavor-wise; it is just that in the case of the average adventurer, X rounds down to zero.

In which case their is no mechanical backup for the flavour and a lack of meshing of the two, leaving the reaper feat sticking out.

Mechanically things can only get so granular before they become annoying to play.

I think this is true too. And so you end up with something that is too cumbersome to play if it makes sense for everyone or simple to play but feeling awkward/poorly designed (for some people).

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise