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    D&D 5E What could 5E do to make wealth worthwhile?

    100% It's hard to model but the DM can make sure that money spent on larger institutions (e.g., governments, churches, guilds, strongholds and armies, etc.) leads to political power and in game ramifications. Of course, the players /characters have to be interested in these goals instead of...
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    The D&D 4th edition Rennaissaince: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits

    It's been long enough that the frames that make it work well/coherent have been discovered and can be easily found. And I'm fine if people say they don't like the framing needed to make 4e work. That's a preference which is all good. But if a group of people are discussing 4e under a...
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    The D&D 4th edition Rennaissaince: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits

    Yep. The biggest gripe I have on the 4e bashing is the insistence on using the worst paradigms to evaluate 4e when better ones are available. To be fair, I'm not even sure all the 4e authors knew how to frame 4e correctly from the start, but we can do that now. Stuff like Come and Get it...
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    The D&D 4th edition Rennaissaince: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits

    Although what's interesting to me is that I recently went back and looked at the 4e Fighter exploits levels 1-30 and they really aren't crazy over the top. Sure, it's not mundane or "realistic" maybe, and there are a few (but not many) narrative/player authorial powers, but a lot of the...
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    The D&D 4th edition Rennaissaince: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits

    I like 4e, but for me it was not only the grind within an encounter but the fact that most published modules just stacked the encounters up back to back to back to back. If the 1st encounter wasn't a grind by the 4th that still hasn't advanced the plot any, I've lost all interest. I like the...
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    The D&D 4th edition Rennaissaince: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits

    The whole Keep was horrible 4e design with perhaps the exception of the final fight room. Area after area of full on encounters just doesn't work well with 4e for pacing reasons unless you deliberately use lots of minions and/or "group" the rooms expecting intelligent opponents to converge...
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    Level Up (A5E) Has A5e evolved since it first came out?

    I was a backer and have the original books, but looked through them a few times then unfortunately they have been sitting on the shelf. Might have an opportunity to play soon though. I know there have been a number of new supplements, books, errata. Has the system evolved since it first came...
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    Pathfinder 2E I think I am giving up on PF2ER

    Really like this idea. It wouldn't satisfy everyone, but I think it would satisfy a chunk of people that want to deliver a impactful blow with magic in the forms they are used to (e.g., paralyze, banish, etc.) without diluting the core idea that you can't trivialize encounters on round 1 anymore.
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    Wizards Goes Big with Vecna: Eve of Ruin

    What a great idea on the legacy front! Imagine you had to go to all the different worlds and you discovered a major secret around Vecna's historic influence in those worlds. Ebberon -- perhaps Vecna introduced some scientist in the past to the world that set off the industrial side of things...
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    D&D General Demetrios1453 Plays the Gold Box Games

    Fond memories! Haven't played these since they first came out, but remember stinking cloud, hold person, hold monster etc being go to spells throughout. If I remember it was basically an auto kill after being paralyzed. I seem to remember doing this to multiple dragons and such in later...
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    D&D 5E Encounter Balance holds back 5E

    Yeah, I like both styles of play (more sandbox explore and more curated/follow the AP). But in either one I think it is beneficial to have a working encounter CR / budget system.
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    The Answer is not (always) on your Character Sheet

    I think it's all about being transparent up front on what is the domain of "player skill" and what is the domain of "character skill". And trying to remove overlap. It's a game so there is some player skill involved. In D&D combat this is where to move, what ability to use, etc. The problem...
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    D&D General No More Baldur's Gate From Larion: Team Is 'Elated'

    Almost finished with Solasta Crown after finished BG3 and really enjoying it. Enjoying it as much as BG3 but in different ways. It's better than BG3 in : 1) 5e rules implementation -- attunement, no busted haste, real flying, etc. 2) keeping things decently challenging in combat until...
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    D&D General No More Baldur's Gate From Larion: Team Is 'Elated'

    Seems a waste. You have the game and rules engine (and a lot of assets) there already, and "only" need to create new stories and some new assets. I know it's not trivial but surely easier than doing story AND rules engine at the same time? License it back to WotC so they can hire someone to...
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    D&D General Social Pillar Mechanics: Where do you stand?

    Yes, agreed. I think the missing part for me is that for Combat you have some strategic player actions that matters (part of the game of many rpgs) and some character skill that matters, with the character skill being more heavily weighted to reflect that we are playing a fictional character...
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    D&D 4E Introducing Orcus -- a 4E retroclone

    So, I just finished BG3 and had a lightbulb go off. IMO 5e is not a great fit for CRPGs but 4e would be amazing. If someone took the time to recreate the original 4e classes in ORCUS, then you could create an CRPG that was essentially 4e, right? A lot of the BG3 problems would go away (combat...
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    D&D 4E Let's Talk About 4E On Its Own Terms [+]

    There are others that can respond better, as I have not played anywhere near a full campaign. I did not see any glaring balance issues although I can't say for sure there aren't any exploits. I didn't say anything about a railroad or not. It is a railroad in the sense that all adventure...
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    D&D 4E Let's Talk About 4E On Its Own Terms [+]

    Fair enough. I meant the 4e rules system more than the whole edition. 4e lore is strong and is a strength of the edition but I wouldn't consider Dragonborn specifically a strength of the rules system per se. IMO, the strength of 4e system in terms of races is that you can create all kinds...
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    D&D 4E Let's Talk About 4E On Its Own Terms [+]

    Unfortunately, I think most of the official ones are just not great for 4e without some work. They almost all suffer from too many encounters in a row, leaving little room for plot development/other stuff. EN World Zeitgeist is the only one that I know of that plays to all of 4e's strengths...
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