I mean that not only do I like it, I have it, because the 4e system for cover is precisely none, partial or superior.Uhm, do you mean you would have liked it or not?
I mean that not only do I like it, I have it, because the 4e system for cover is precisely none, partial or superior.Uhm, do you mean you would have liked it or not?
I mean that not only do I like it, I have it, because the 4e system for cover is precisely none, partial or superior.
4e's "superior cover" is roughly equivalent to 5e's 3/4 cover as far as defensive bonuses go, and is roughly equivalent to 5e's "total cover" as far as stealth rules are concerned.Does "superior" mean full cover in 4e?
The fictional definition of "total cover" within 5e - that is, a character completely occluded behind some other massive body - is not part of the cover rules at all in 4e.
I think in practice, though, based on my experience as a 4e GM, it plays the way you are suggesting (ie 3 cases, not 4).Ok, but that sounds like you still have 4 cases, with 2 intermediate between nothing and complete cover...
4e's "superior cover" is roughly equivalent to 5e's 3/4 cover as far as defensive bonuses go, and is roughly equivalent to 5e's "total cover" as far as stealth rules are concerned.
The fictional definition of "total cover" within 5e - that is, a character completely occluded behind some other massive body - is not part of the cover rules at all in 4e. 4e does have a "line of effect" rule, which is analogous to the "clear path" rule in the spellcasting rules for 5e.
In 4e, if character A tries to stab character B through a keyhole, then unless it is a very big keyhole the attack will auto-fail not because of the cover rules but because of the prior fictional positioning (ie a sword can't fit through a keyhole). If character A tries to lightning bolt character B through the same keyhole, then there is LoE ("a clear path", to use 5e's language) but the target has superior cover (-5 to hit, analogous to the +5 to save in 5e).
I'm not sure how 5e handles that, because a keyhole clearly provides more than 3/4 cover, but it seems that a caster peeking through it should be able to fire an energy ray through it too.
Superior cover is sufficient for attempting to hide.4e's cover rules don't determine stealth... the concealment rules do.
Superior cover is sufficient for attempting to hide.
In 5e, you need total cover (ie out of sight).
In this context, skills and, especially, feats, are just the 3E label for a very general concept: an activity with a variable success rate, and a exceptional special ability, respectively.I think you've actually glossed over the problem with 3.5 that 5e is designed to fix (i.e., what makes 5e more like 1e or 2e, rather than 3e+). The issue is not the number of rules (heck 1e had more rules than 2e), but introduction of skills and feats to leverage the rules.
My experience is my own, but in my experience, this sounds more like 2E. "Does your fighter have Climb Walls? No, only the thief does. Well then..." "Your wizard can't use swords. I don't know or care what happens if he tries, he just can't." Even when it got to negotiating rules, the chance was often far from decent, as the DMs almost always felt a need to not give it up easily: an example comes to mind where someone wanted to grab on to carriage rushing past, and had to make a Dex check to grab a railing, then a Str check to hold on, then a material saving throw for the wood to hold his weigh... I think that's the one he failed, to the DM's relief.Think about it. Even in 2e, when faced with a situation without RAW, your table came up with a rule for it. So, while there were fewer RAW in 2e than 3e, the number of rules were exactly the same at the table. The difference is that 3e, having introduced rules for various corner cases, also retasked 2e's "secondary proficiencies" to give some kind of bonus for various builds of characters.
In 2e, if you decided that you were going to dive off the cliff and attempt to grab the falling MacGuffin, your table negotiated what rolls you needed to make. Assuming you had a DM that followed the "rule of cool," often times you would have a decent chance of pulling off something creative and dramatic, based off of negotiated rules. Post 3e, however, there are not only rules for most things, but skills and feats that give bonuses to these things (do you have "fly"? Well then, you can't move in the air over to the object and grab it. You don't know how...).