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Arguably, which is why I said "aiming to avoid", as opposed to "avoiding". You're free to debate whether or not it successfully accomplishes that goal, but to me it seems fairly indisputable that it was an intended goal for the setting.

I think it's challenging from a design perspective. Not impossible, but definitely challenging. Having seen that type of mechanic in plenty of video games (as well as occasionally in RPGs), the biggest issue with it is that I think it has a narrow sweet spot (which becomes practically...

Yeah, I achieve the same thing performatively. Enemies often (but not always) will attack the melee, even if it's not the most tactically optimal choice. I typically use more open (or interconnected) areas and try to include a few useful things on the field, to encourage characters to move to...

Potentially. Typically, not right away. Let's assume a hypothetical user is running their software in Windows. Each time Microsoft makes a change, it may crash and burn. It probably won't fail the day after you have no one to support it (that'd be either bad luck or sabotage), but it's...

Yep, I know quite a few retired programmers who still make a very nice side income supporting software that no one else understands, because that tech simply isn't in demand anymore (so no one really wants to learn it).

It depends, but not necessarily. Languages may rise and fall in popularity, but they don't really get outdated. Programming concepts, like functional/OOP programming and patterns don't get outdated. Plus, a lot of outdated code still sees use to this day due to legacy projects, many of which...

I guess we run fairly different styles of games. Even in dungeons, I often have the hallways interconnect. The denizens know the tunnels while (unless they've already explored the area) the PCs don't. So turtling like that is a good way to have your back line flanked. But yeah, it can work if...

So true. It's happening to me right now. New owners took over and laid off most of our UI team, then transferred the remaining guy to a different department. Then, when they realized there was no one left to do UI development, they asked me to learn how to do it. I said sure, because it's a...

I'd say if it happens regularly it could be seen that way. If it's only an occasional thing, then not that big a deal. Sometimes characters get taken out of a fight. You get knocked off a high ledge in round 1 and have to spend the rest of the fight climbing back. Or you take a high damage crit...

That's 10% (or 25%) each round. I assume that at least one of these encounters went a minimum of 10 rounds since the character was perma-banished. Meaning that, with a save every round the 10% guy has a 65% chance of making a successful save before the effect becomes permanent. And that's not...

It's far less common IME in 5e as well. Twice a campaign? I recall 3.x games where that sort of thing happened multiple times in the same session. Banishment is a bit of an outlier. The devs are already targeting it in the revision, so I would say this is more a case of an individual spell...

There's some truth to that, but I take issue with the fact that typically melee cannot actually perform the role of defender. Usually, this is actually performative on the part of the DM, who opts to have the monsters focus on the frontline rather provoking a single (often meaningless) OA, and...

You're overlooking all of the other ways that 3.x had to boost those numbers beyond the bounds of class, such as feats, magic items, etc. For the most part, those don't exist in 5e. In 3.x you could have a cloak of resistance +5 (for example), which added +5 to all of your saves. Now compare...

That's why I preferred daggers. Slightly less attacks, but they could be thrown or dual-wielded in melee equally well. Plus, magical daggers were not uncommon, IME.

That's an odd claim. BA doesn't eliminate the treadmill. In 5e, for example, DCs scale and so do proficient saves. At an equivalent rate, no less. That's a treadmill. All BA means is that, unlike 3e, your non-proficient saves will often have a better than 5% chance of success, because the gap...

If you want the math to not stay the same, have your high level party continue raiding the same type of goblin dens that they did at low levels. The math will be "different", though I'm not sure how satisfying an experience they'd find it.

What I was saying was 70% both ways. IOW, you have (at best) a 70% chance of saving with your best save. You have a 30% chance of saving with your worst save (IOW, a 70% chance of success for the attacker). Casters have the option to choose a wide variety of saves, but casters aren't the only...

You can get better, sure. IMO, it shouldn't be so much better that an enemy only has a 5% chance of landing an ability against that save. (Not counting very rare one-time enemies like gods, for whom that's fine since it's a one off.) Ideally, the numbers shouldn't normally skew so hard that...

You can be good at way more than 2/6. That's just what everyone gets. There's the feat that gives you an extra good save, as well as class features that do the same. Moreover, if you're a paladin (or simply near a paladin) your bonus could be as high as a +16. There are other bonuses (ring of...

IMO, if you went that route, you'd need to do the same for saving throws (have it just based on the ability score sans proficiency). Alternately, you could use the higher of the ability score or proficiency for both.