D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[Vaalingrade]

Even so, 3e at least had status effects that didn't go away the next morning.

Until you got the wand of Lesser Restoration online.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Nonsense is relative. If there's an expectation mismatch, at the end of the day it doesn't matter who's "right", even if that could be determined. No one is going to have a good time.

Absolutely true--but people don't get to act like that's all the players' problem because they have unreasonable expectations. And there's certainly parts of the "it was better in the old days" crowd that clearly think that.

 

[Thomas Shey]

You do if they refuse to explain why they disagree. That's not a discussion, that's name-calling. No matter what side it's coming from.

I feel no need to particular be kind to people who are, at best, using an idiosyncratic use of a word and not bothering to define it, and at worst are using it as a way to play the dozens on stylistic choices they dislike. I don't consider calling them out for doing that in any way inappropriate.

 

[Thomas Shey]

So we assume the assertion is false? You can just say no and you're in the right?

I'd read more as "Show your work".

 

[Azzy]

About the width of a hand. Just like a typical Zweihander.

You must have seen different Zweihanders than me. I've never seen any real sword with a hand-width blade.

Unless the mystical halo around you got you confused, the sword Elmore depicted is perfectly normal.

Nah, it's a bit exaggerated.

The sword of "Zangetsu" is taller and got a wider blade than his head! And he can weild it one hand...

That's not from a modern D&D book (or a D&D book at all), so I fail to see it being relevant to my query or to the complain about about weapons in modern D&D being anime-inspired.

 

[tetrasodium]

I always love the whole "Naw, 3e didn't have unlimited healing". It makes me giggle.

Never minding that clerics had their healing abilities massively increased, paladins became a commonly played class, rangers got healing at what, 3rd, 4th level, AND the party could make their own healing wands for a feat that the wizard got for free.

Good grief, did you ever see a group actually heal naturally in 3e? Ever?

Then again, the 3e change was mostly based on how 2e was being played where, sure, it wasn't overnight healing, but, it was as fast as the cleric could cast Cure spells. Meaning that the natural healing rules were 99% ignored anyway.

This "change" is more just a reflection of how the game was actually being played.

Burning a bunch of spell slots like that by doing an overnight rest to cast a bunch of cure spells was not without risks, the healer was down all of those slots the next day and would want another rest making "let's go back to town" something players of those characters were likely to consider pushing for instead of just the gm trying to convince the party it's unsafe since there was the first risk of wait while beat up & down on slots till they can pray in the morning to cure everyone else up then the risk of being massively down on spell slots while waiting till they could pray for it again the second morning or the healers were down whatever they just used. By that time two days have passed and the risk of going back can be much higher.

edit: for the record since someone mentioned a wand of lesser restoration, that is a 2nd level spell & would be 3000gp not 750gp. I can't recall ever seeing one, but at 1d4 points of recovery per cast it could pretty quickly suck up a lot of charges if a few players had ability score damage.

edit2: it was extremely difficult for a wizard to get cure wounds on their spell list, without the ability to cast it a wizard can't craft wands of CLW unless the DM took pity & allowed the wizard to craft wands of CLW using the healer's spell contribution during the crafting. Those were almost always found or purchased & only in quantities the GM allowed

 

[Vaalingrade]

The sword of "Zangetsu" is taller and got a wider blade than his head! And he can weild it one hand...

For everyone else's reference, Zangetsu is a magical ghost sword made spirit energy and its size is a symbol of the wielder's lack of focus in his spiritual power. Once he gains focus and ability, it gets smaller.

Truly a great example of an oversized, mundane sword.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They asked 'Am I Wrong?', not 'please write up a dissertation to explain why I'm wrong to satisfy some other random poster who will ride your butt for it for no reason'.

Literally asked for more than one word to express an opinion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Absolutely true--but people don't get to act like that's all the players' problem because they have unreasonable expectations. And there's certainly parts of the "it was better in the old days" crowd that clearly think that.

They don't get to act like its all the DM either. Seems like it's always portrthough. 100% one or the others fault though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I feel no need to particular be kind to people who are, at best, using an idiosyncratic use of a word and not bothering to define it, and at worst are using it as a way to play the dozens on stylistic choices they dislike. I don't consider calling them out for doing that in any way inappropriate.

I completely understood what he was talking about, for my part.

And you can call out whatever you like, but it lacks credibility (to me, anyway) if a simple yes or no is all you can muster. Why bother answering at all then?