Unpopular opinions go here

[Jd Smith1]

You could design a fun game that’s actually balanced without resorting to making gameplay tedious for some players as the means of “balancing” things. Just sayin’.

Balance is overrated. Players need to learn that retreat is an option.

I don't play D&D, but I always incorporate languages in my campaigns. It livens up NPC interactions, and forces PC development.

 

[Hussar]

Part of this hinges on pressure. Can the caster afford to burn spells on the things other characters can do without wasting a resource? Is it safe to have the wizard yelling out verbal components? Can the party risk the time to rest constantly so the wizard can replenish?

One thing that informs all this is the nature of the party's activities. Specifically, are they crawling through a dungeon, moving through hostile territory, or traveling in relative safety. When the party has one encounter per day, casters shine a lot brighter than when the party is pushing hard through the dungeon to avoid wandering monster checks.

Why is the wizard "yelling"? How is casting a "move earth" cantrip, as an example, louder than digging with a shovel?

The funny thing is, again, this is all about high level play. At high levels, you are never running out of spells. You practically can't. Not between the actual spells you have, plus a wand or two plus various other doodads. About 13th level or so, your casters can go all day long and never run out of spells. Or, rather, the non-casters run out of HP long before the casters run out of spells.

The idea that if we would only just have those 6-8 encounters then everything would balance is a myth. Casters, at high levels, just have far, far too many resources to ever really worry about it.

 

[Reynard]

Why is the wizard "yelling"? How is casting a "move earth" cantrip, as an example, louder than digging with a shovel?

The funny thing is, again, this is all about high level play. At high levels, you are never running out of spells. You practically can't. Not between the actual spells you have, plus a wand or two plus various other doodads. About 13th level or so, your casters can go all day long and never run out of spells. Or, rather, the non-casters run out of HP long before the casters run out of spells.

The idea that if we would only just have those 6-8 encounters then everything would balance is a myth. Casters, at high levels, just have far, far too many resources to ever really worry about it.

We were talking about post 13th level play? I missed that, especially since AD&D rarely got that high and if they did the fighter was probably leading Armies from dragonback.

 

[Velderan]

Unpopular opinion: there are some dice rolls that should be kept secret from some or all of the players, up to and including the very player who made that roll in the first place

knowing you rolled a 4 on your deception check means you're never going to allow a scenario where the NPC 'plays along' with the lie to lead you on to happen because the moment they're saying 'sure i believe you' in response your eyes lock onto that '4' and you become as suspicious as all get out not trusting a single thing they say or do now because you know you beefed that deception.

or death saves, sure you can see your friend is bleeding out on the floor but should you know just how close to death's door they actually are? should your group know that you actually got a nat 1 on their first death save and suddenly everybody's all hands on deck the druid needs healing ASAP pronto done by this time yesterday!!! rather than sauntering across the battlefield, the paladin decides healing them isn't that big a priority they'll just use their attack to smite this guy real quick, next turn they'll cast bless, and then on the turn after that if the druid isnt doing too good maybe then they'll think about healing them.

In PF2e, this is handled through the secret trait on some checks. Want to make a Recall Knowledge (Arcana) check on those strange runes on the floor? The GM rolls the check and then narrates what the result is, so if you got a critical failure you're absolutely sure it has to be a summoning circle used to conjure demons. A critical success? Definitely a teleportation circle the party could safely use. It can create some fun roleplaying when 2 characters get a wildly different result on their die roll and are both certain they're right.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Balance is overrated. Players need to learn that retreat is an option.

imbalance between the players and GM is overrated maybe, yes, but balance between player options which is what i believe @overgeeked was actually referring to is definitely not, and needs to be given more time and attention to by the designers, no matter how awkward you make your spellcasting mechanics it's really not going to even out the massive power it provides compared to the ability to swing a big sword.

 

[Hussar]

We were talking about post 13th level play? I missed that, especially since AD&D rarely got that high and if they did the fighter was probably leading Armies from dragonback.

Ok, now we need to be a bit more specific about which edition we're talking about. Again, fighters were fine in 1e and 2e because they were almost never getting overshadowed by casters - when your fighter is killing giants in one round, it's hard to overshadow him or her.

It becomes more of an issue in later editions, and a bigger issue at higher levels.

Oh, and let's not forget the absolute innundation of new spells into the game. AD&D had what, a quarter of the spell choices of 2e and 3e had twice as many again. And that's just in the PHB.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Probably not that unpopular:

Resistance to non-magic B/S/P should be way way more rare. If you have stony hard-shelled monsters, just give them stupid high AC! Having good chance of hitting high AC monsters is the thing martials are made for.

Its pretty stupid to have the classes with the less access to magic forced to deal with Resistance to non-magic attacks the most to do their one trick!

OTOH, elemental Resistance and status Resistance should be more common. The casters have access to a huge tool box, force them to switch the hammer for a screwdriver or a saw one in a while. It's not normal to have a cleric overcome the all resistances in the MM by spamming Sacred Flame over and over.

And bring back etheral creatures with a x-in-6 chance to avoid an attack unless its Force damage and creature with immunity to spells of level X and lower, like the rakshasa.

 

[deganawida]

Here's my unpopular opinion: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is a great game

It’s is! However, it’s not my favorite Squaresoft game.

Unpopular opinion: My favorite Squaresoft game is Secret of Evermore. I was that B-movie-loving, small town boy with a dog in tow growing up. Pretty much the only thing which has changed is now I’m a man instead of a boy.

 

[Reynard]

imbalance between the players and GM is overrated maybe, yes, but balance between player options which is what i believe @overgeeked was actually referring to is definitely not, and needs to be given more time and attention to by the designers, no matter how awkward you make your spellcasting mechanics it's really not going to even out the massive power it provides compared to the ability to swing a big sword.

The balance doesn't need to be about power or even combat capability. It needs to be about fun. If it is just as fun, compelling or interesting to play Frodo, Aragon or Gandalf then the balance is fine.

 

[Cadence]

The balance doesn't need to be about power or even combat capability. It needs to be about fun. If it is just as fun, compelling or interesting to play Frodo, Aragon or Gandalf then the balance is fine.

Is that the thing in that a good Super Hero game especially needs to do?