D&D (2024) Its till just me or is the 2024 MM heavily infused by more 4e influences?

[Yaarel]

Then why are they comedically over-large for that purpose and, more importantly, only located near the head? Wouldn't you want fins like that at several points along the body for fine control in flight?

Heh, I havent done any wind tunnel tests on the Gold Dragon aerodynamics.

Still, I expect it to slither thru the air, with the fin along its back enabling it to wind thru air.

It is somewhat like a buoyant blimp in the form of a wriggling snake.

 

[SteveC]

But wouldn't it be better if a hill giant smacking a halfling did send them hurtling across the room?

Maybe? It depends on a lot of things about the different characters. I'd say a game where the potential exists for something like that would be better. But then, I like the Hero System where all of that is handled. But 5.5E is very far from that.

 

[mamba]

In D&D terms it does. In fact, almost any attack from any creature makes has the same results: you lose some HP. That's the kind of game D&D is

the point is you lose the same number of HP (or at least the potential is the same)

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can see that either way, it enables you to tell how the dragon attacks you because Rend can really be anything, Bite is clearly one thing. Not that this should have stopped anyone from their narrative, if the can do it when the thing is called Rend, they can do it when it is called Bite too

I'd rather be subject to an attack called Bite that does piercing damage, and then have the DM describe me getting bit (or nearly so, what with hit points), because that in fact is what happened.

 

[mamba]

it is true DND is almost anime in style for combat and magic.

yes, and I am no fan of it. 2024 makes this worse

I do think a lot of people who want it fixed could be happier playing something like gurps.

or simply not 5e but an earlier version... Personally I am interested in what Mike Mearls does with it

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe? It depends on a lot of things about the different characters. I'd say a game where the potential exists for something like that would be better. But then, I like the Hero System where all of that is handled. But 5.5E is very far from that.

No argument about 5.5. If a hill giant should logically be able to swing their club and knock someone across the room (and for my money they should), then that ability ought to be in the game. If 5.5 doesn't allow for that, then IMO the game is flawed.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

You can do that anyway. When you show up with a nicely painted dragon figure (of any color) no one is going to complain that it doesn't have the proper horns and frills of the D&D Art.

My greatest critic is myself.

 

[mamba]

I find that the less "simulationist" the game mechanics are, the more "realism" I can find in the narrative.

For example, I'm often reminded of the time I had the misfortune of playing Rolemaster. A friend suggested we play it because he found it more "realistic". So we spent hours and hours making characters, and in the first fight, I was standing behind a bolder, and a foe shot at me with a bow (from nearby). He scored a crit, and the game ground to a halt as we rolled in various charts fir weapon type vs armor type and location, and I wound up with a terrible wound ..

To my FOOT.

I don't remember all the details, but at the time, everyone at the table felt that the foot was about the least likely place that I could have been wounded. Why dud we waste so much table time only to have a less-than-likely result?

A more open (IE narratively made-up) ruleset would be both quicker, and ultimately more "realistic".

I am no fan of having to consult a ton of tables to find a result (the way Rolemaster does), and I agree that random tables obviously have limits when it comes to always arriving at a convincing narrative. I do not want to throw out the baby with the bathwater though to enable the narrative. Rend is just a bland 'the dragon does whatever, who cares, it is all the same' to me, the Corrosive Miasma is even worse, that is a 'the dragon does something, but I have no idea how or at least I find all ideas that do nonsensical, but here is what it does'

 

[Tonguez]

that might be true here (if there were dragons) but it is not what happens in D&D though

Sure - in game it would be "The dragon pounces, a torrent of scales, claws and dripping venom. Y ou feel your body torn as the dragon rends your flesh, piercing muscle and dripping poison"

"The green dragon surges forward, its talons raking through flesh, its fangs tearing into muscle, a burning spurt of poison pulsing through your veins."

either way Rend allows me to narrate anything

 

[CreamCloud0]

No argument about 5.5. If a hill giant should logically be able to swing their club and knock someone across the room (and for my money they should), then that ability ought to be in the game. If 5.5 doesn't allow for that, then IMO the game is flawed.

well the push mastery does exist in 5.5, it's just a matter of giving it to the hill giant.