D&D General New Interview with Rob Heinsoo About 4E

[Undrave]

Hm, I could see people then slapping on lots of buffs since you're gonna lose 1 at most per round. Same applies to debuffs too. And presumably the person rolling would choose which buff/debuff goes? Sure would beat rolling lots of saves every round though.

Yup, you pick which one goes. I could also see the DM being the one to choose which buff goes?

I would probably do the 4e thing where you can only have certain types of bonus at once. Maybe limit it to 'Power' 'Item' and 'Special' bonuses. If you get a new bonus of that type it just overrides the other one. Might be a lot of tokens if you need to have three different colors, but it would be pretty clear. You could just place them right next to whatever stat that's getting buffed!

You could even make it so long term numerical + an - just automatically cancel each other with no save being rolled.

 

[Retreater]

They all knew they were going to have a rough time without a defender and yet went ahead without one. You could take the blame for agreeing to DM that group with no defender, but really it's on them. Doesn't sound like explaining that to them, or even offering the option for somebody to switch to any defender class, is going to help.

I was just discussing options with my wife (who plays the hexblade character.) I said "we can try with a defender or I can work on re-writing a big chunk of the adventure."
She said "I guess I can play a defender. I'd rather do that than have you complain about running the game."
"Forget it. Keep your hexblade. I'll just rewrite the damn adventure."

 

[billd91]

I was just discussing options with my wife (who plays the hexblade character.) I said "we can try with a defender or I can work on re-writing a big chunk of the adventure."
She said "I guess I can play a defender. I'd rather do that than have you complain about running the game."
"Forget it. Keep your hexblade. I'll just rewrite the damn adventure."

Does Santa leave a lump of coal as an anniversary gift for unsupportive spouses?

 

[niklinna]

Yup, you pick which one goes. I could also see the DM being the one to choose which buff goes?

Rolling one more die to decide randomly also isn't bad. Or you track keep them in order applied, and the oldest one goes. Or newest? Or you could roll the smallest die encompassing your total of (de)buffs and the # matching on the list goes, none if you roll over them all. That would just be one straightforward roll with no decisions to make. Sorry, you've got my brainstorming/spitballing circuits activated now!

 

[niklinna]

I was just discussing options with my wife (who plays the hexblade character.) I said "we can try with a defender or I can work on re-writing a big chunk of the adventure."
She said "I guess I can play a defender. I'd rather do that than have you complain about running the game."
"Forget it. Keep your hexblade. I'll just rewrite the damn adventure."

She could have made the offer in a more supportive way, but she did offer to do something that would help both you and the whole group. But then you could have just accepted the offer, too, instead of firing a shot back and continuing to take the path that makes you miserable and your players unsatisfied. I don't know what else to say, at this point. Your wife doesn't see how overworked and stressed out you are?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

IN MY OPINION many fighter abilities in 4E were supernatural.

this is the argument... you can feel like they should be or you can think if you made them they would be... but by the book they were not.

 

[Oofta]

this is the argument... you can feel like they should be or you can think if you made them they would be... but by the book they were not.

Like I've said many times. I don't care what the label said. It's not relevant.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

they never promised it…

I'm about to hit my limit for how much I allow myself to post here in a month, but they said they were realsing all old editions... if you want to try to argue around the word promise that is fine/

 

[Oofta]

I'm about to hit my limit for how much I allow myself to post here in a month, but they said they were realsing all old editions... if you want to try to argue around the word promise that is fine/

When? Where? Honest question, I just know people at one point started saying this.

On the other hand, sometimes people state goals that simply can't be achieved.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So stop running only combats. Take a few sessions of just RP or next session have only one combat.

Right now I am running RIFTs, one of my players kept worrying "Its just going to be deadly fight after deadly fight" in 9 sessions we have had 2 fights and only 2 important NPC deaths...

The amount of time you spend in combat is 100% group dependent