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50 Years. The Least Popular Class Is......
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<blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9470640" data-attributes="member: 93670"><p>While people have been arguing over where exactly things <em>started</em> going off the rails & <em>eventually</em> just took flight, I think it's important to note something being completely ignored because it's something that provides such a stark contrast with modern d&d. Back then there was an expectation that a not insignificant chunk of a PC's power came from various magic items & that those magic items would be regularly upgraded. Toss in slot & bonus type conflicts along with the way that the most specialized hyperoptimized builds tended to need similarly specialized gear & it was <em>easy</em> for a GM not running the game like a mindless CRPG interweb thought exercise to massage the gap between weaker & more powerful PCs. Not only was it easy for the GM to smooth out the peaks & troughs across the party through how gear upgrades were handled, monsters themselves had a lot more mechanical hooks that existed for further massaging of the curve in the form of things like creature type resist/immune bits<strong>☆</strong> and per attack DR/resist or spell selection influencing SR.</p><p></p><p>Juggling all of that to keep things fun for the party was generally fairly simple & there were plenty of monsters available to make doing it easy without seeming to single anyone out. It was not uncommon for it to just get done during adventure prep without really giving it much thought. All of that is largely stripped away in the name of "<a href="https://www.tgdmb.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=48977" target="_blank">fun</a>" & "simplicity" resulting in a situation where massaging the curve of CharOp at the table is now so needlessly difficult that any attempt tends to wind up not too different from the results of using an impact driver when a set of precision jeweler's tools was needed. </p><p>[spoiler="this is relevant"]</p><p>spotted this somewhere recently</p><p>[ATTACH=full]381187[/ATTACH]</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p>Choosing to overoptimize <em>and</em> disregard the option of holding back in the name of cooperative fun for the entire group is a stupid decision. It's also one that was not all that difficult to handle back in 3.5 without players feeling punished, that is largely no longer the case.</p><p></p><p><strong>☆</strong>undead/constructs being immune to <em>most</em> sources of sneak/crit damage being the most obvious but there were many more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tetrasodium, post: 9470640, member: 93670"] While people have been arguing over where exactly things [I]started[/I] going off the rails & [I]eventually[/I] just took flight, I think it's important to note something being completely ignored because it's something that provides such a stark contrast with modern d&d. Back then there was an expectation that a not insignificant chunk of a PC's power came from various magic items & that those magic items would be regularly upgraded. Toss in slot & bonus type conflicts along with the way that the most specialized hyperoptimized builds tended to need similarly specialized gear & it was [I]easy[/I] for a GM not running the game like a mindless CRPG interweb thought exercise to massage the gap between weaker & more powerful PCs. Not only was it easy for the GM to smooth out the peaks & troughs across the party through how gear upgrades were handled, monsters themselves had a lot more mechanical hooks that existed for further massaging of the curve in the form of things like creature type resist/immune bits[B]☆[/B] and per attack DR/resist or spell selection influencing SR. Juggling all of that to keep things fun for the party was generally fairly simple & there were plenty of monsters available to make doing it easy without seeming to single anyone out. It was not uncommon for it to just get done during adventure prep without really giving it much thought. All of that is largely stripped away in the name of "[URL='https://www.tgdmb.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=48977']fun[/URL]" & "simplicity" resulting in a situation where massaging the curve of CharOp at the table is now so needlessly difficult that any attempt tends to wind up not too different from the results of using an impact driver when a set of precision jeweler's tools was needed. [spoiler="this is relevant"] spotted this somewhere recently [ATTACH type="full"]381187[/ATTACH] [/spoiler] Choosing to overoptimize [I]and[/I] disregard the option of holding back in the name of cooperative fun for the entire group is a stupid decision. It's also one that was not all that difficult to handle back in 3.5 without players feeling punished, that is largely no longer the case. [B]☆[/B]undead/constructs being immune to [I]most[/I] sources of sneak/crit damage being the most obvious but there were many more. [/QUOTE]
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