D&D 5E (2014) Is Point Buy Balanced?

[EzekielRaiden]

The question then becomes one of whether they should cater to that player psychology or try to incrementally change it such that a "miss" streak is simply accepted as part of the game rather than bemoaned.

Let me put it this way:

Would you allow yourself to be "incrementally change[d]" so that you accepted the kind of gameplay 4th edition offered?

If you would not, then why would you expect others to allow themselves to be "incrementally change[d]" to accept the kind of gameplay you favor? And if you would allow that, then what need is there for changing everyone else to match your current preference?

Because as it stands, this looks to me like just a slightly more courteous way of saying, "Should we let people have badwrongfun, or should we slowly reach them how to have goodrightfun?"

 

[Maxperson]

Perhaps, perhaps not. I would be quite surprised if they aimed much lower than 60%. It's less a matter of feeling heroic, and more a matter of missing four attacks in a row feels bad, since that can mean two whole rounds of doing diddly squat in a combat, more at early levels. If you're batting at 50%, then getting four missed attacks in a row is a 6.25% chance. Even with Advantage, it's not beyond the pale to miss three out of four (just shy of 2% if I did my math right), and getting advantage two rounds in a row is hardly guaranteed. Conversely, upping that to 65% makes missing four attacks in a row very unlikely, 1.5%, while hitting all four is ~17.9%.

It's not guaranteed by any means. You could be right. I'm just not really seeing much in 5e which mitigates that player psychology element.

Getting advantage two rounds in a row is very easy. Not guaranteed, but very easy. Getting bonuses to hit is also fairly easy. Not as easy as getting advantage, but still pretty easy starting at low levels.

 

[ECMO3]

Getting advantage two rounds in a row is very easy. Not guaranteed, but very easy. Getting bonuses to hit is also fairly easy. Not as easy as getting advantage, but still pretty easy starting at low levels.

It can be very easy, but you need to build for it and if you don't it is not that easy.

 

[Lanefan]

Let me put it this way:

Would you allow yourself to be "incrementally change[d]" so that you accepted the kind of gameplay 4th edition offered?

If 4e was all that was out there and I was brand new to RPGing, I wouldn't have much of a choice.

Similar to when (with a few niche exceptions) B/X and 1e was all there was; and anyone brand new to RPGing ended up for the most part accepting the kind of gameplay those games offered.

Since then, however, what I've seen is a slow incremental change, driven by design, toward less acceptance of loss conditions and-or bad things in the game and-or whiffing. All I'm suggesting is that maybe it's time to turn that ship around.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The question then becomes one of whether they should cater to that player psychology or try to incrementally change it such that a "miss" streak is simply accepted as part of the game rather than bemoaned.

Since its been bemoaned to some extent for half a century, I'm not holding my breath on the latter.