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  1. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    Precedent is vitally important for internal consistency, which in turn is beyond essential for a coherent setting. All of these are needed before the 'game' part ever leaves the ground.
  2. Lanefan

    D&D General What even are you? (a poll)

    "Both DM and Player" is missing as an option; as opposed to just one or just the other.
  3. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    18 Con? My first thought is Ranger provided I can meet the other pre-req's.
  4. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    House rule, I think. We also gave crossbow to almost everyone as an allowable weapon, but not sling as that's a bit more complex than simple point-and-shoot.
  5. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    Also bring back spell interruption. It's not a complex rule unless you want to use RAW initative, and it really does help tone down the casters. It's not at all complex in play but takes a bit of authorial work up front: bring back the idea of specific weapons allowable by (non-warrior) class...
  6. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    It's possible to drop some of the more complex-for-complexity's-sake rules and still keep things vaguely balanced IMO and IME. A good example is initiative. As written, it's a disaster. We went to a much simpler system ages ago and haven't seen it cause any balance issues, probably because...
  7. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    The answer to almost all of these issues is, IME, to decouple xp from treasure. This slows advancement down A LOT, and suddenly the different xp advancement tables work as intended because characters aren't trying to gain three levels at once from a lucky-strike dragon's hoard. It also means...
  8. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    Huh. I always thought hit point advancement stopped when you two-classed until your second class surpassed your first. Thus ehre the thief side would only provide 1d6+Con bonus, when the Thief side got to 8th level and surpassed the Fighter side.
  9. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    Just the one bad roll of the failed save, really. His odds of hitting the other PCs were pretty good, and those he didn't kill on the first swing were more interested in trying to kill the real enemy in hopes that doing so would bring their Fighter back to his senses. Problem was, their path...
  10. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    Get it right before you introduce it, not after. Once you've had an NPC cast it in play, you've set and locked in the precedent. A crypt thing isn't a PC-playable species, thus it's irrelevant what it can do. But an NPC Elf casting a spell the PCs have never seen, that's different. That...
  11. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    Once they've met that technique, though, it becomes a known thing in the setting (and one might sometimes ask, quite reasonably, how and why it wasn't known before, depending on how it's introduced) and thus theoretically a player's next character might have undergone said years of training and...
  12. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    Maybe, but the thread is specifically about Fighters I think.
  13. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    A notion I outright refuse to subscribe to, whatever the edition.
  14. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    Those I'm fine with. Undead and Vampires aren't PC-playable and thus could well have non-standard abilities. This, however, I'm not fine with unless Force Missile specialist was an available option for players to choose for their PCs during roll-up (or as a later feat or ability or whatever)...
  15. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    I'll add a 4th one: 4. One key thing going wrong that starts a cascade of problems that eventually wipes out the party. The only TPK I've ever DMed was like this: the one key thing that went wrong was the party's main Fighter was first into the room, failed a save, and immediately got...
  16. Lanefan

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Except when it only has one hit point, putting it to sleep with a mace kills it in the process. (I flat-out refuse to allow any sort of post-hoc "oh, I meant to make it unconscious" declaration; you have to say before you swing whether you're attacking to subdue or to kill)
  17. Lanefan

    D&D General I'm a Fighter, not a Lover: Why the 1e Fighter was so Awesome

    @Snarf Zagyg - your disclaimer list is missing one key point: are you talking about the pre-UA 1e Fighter or the post-UA 1e Fighter? Weapon specialization in UA made a pretty big difference between the two. Pre-UA the Fighter was great. Post-UA the Fighter was, at low levels, a bit broken.
  18. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    The PCs are adventurers, but not the only ones in the setting; and it's reasonable to expect or even demand that those NPC adventurers are using the same game mechanics etc. as the PCs are. Never mind that an NPC adventurer one minute can become a PC adventurer the next; I've seen this happen...
  19. Lanefan

    D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

    Exactly! That's the whole bloody point! PCs are (potentially) exceptional because of what they do, not because of what they are.
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