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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5903014" data-attributes="member: 42582">What sort of combat systems have you got in mind? Rolemaster and Runequest aren't victory by attrition - they lead to death/disablement through injury rather than death through resource depletion.High level 3E, I understand, also has a tendency to replace death by attrition with death by failed saving throw.4e has an obvious attrition element - hit points have to be dropped to zero. But it has enough else going on that attrition isn't all, and at various moments is far from the only, exciting thing going on. Of the five PCs in my game, one is a striker (chaos sorcerer), one a hybrid ranger-cleric (mostly played as a striker) and one a reasonably high-damage paladin (so a defender/leader with a bit of striker, especially vs bloodied enemies). Two are not based around damage at all, but rather control: the fighter and the wizard.This is certainly a marked contrast from Rolemaster, which - while not an attrition-based game - is not a game that makes non-damage-dealing a signficinat part of combat. It's an interesting and (for me) appealing element of 4e.I meant in 4e.It's an assumed resource like weapons and spells. But choosing how to deploy spells has always been an interesting aspect of fantasy RPGing for me, and I think for my players also.We have quite different experiences, then. It's true that dice can be exciting - I gave the example from Rolemaster upthread, of needing an open-ended roll to save the party from TPK (and I've seen it done twice in nearly 20 years of RM GMing, and it's always dramatic).But the tension and drama of having to make choices in a situation of imperfect information and changing parameters can also be exciting. 4e's healing mechanics, and integration of them into the action economy, introduces a dimension to this that, for me at least, is new - it isn't part of Rolemaster, nor part of classic (pre-3E) D&D. And at least based on my reading of the 3E core books, I don't feel it's such a part of that game either, because they don't have the "You can get your hit points back, but only if you unlock a surge" mechanism that is central to 4e.</blockquote>

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