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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7376998" data-attributes="member: 82106">Ah, see it really helps to be a truly dyed in the wool wargamer. 'Zone of Control' is originally a term used in military science, and popularized in games by Avalon Hill in its classic hexmap wargames. The rules varied somewhat from game to game, but typically units of say corps, division, or regiment size, operating on 'operational' scale maps (5-50km per hex say) would exert a ZOC in the hexes around them. The effects varied, being anything from automatically halting the movement of enemy units entering a hex in a ZOC to imposing movement penalties or something like 'opportunity attacks'. These also appeared in a more flexible form in games like Panzer Leader/Blitzkrieg which depict combat at a platoon level with scales in the 200 meters per hex range. In those games there was generally more of a 'beaten ground' kind of control with opportunity fire taking place against units moving into the area. Something like 'threatening reach' as a common controller concept would effectively be the same sort of thing. Anyone entering a somewhat extended zone around the controller would be subject to attack or other sanctions. It would certainly have the potential to create static combat situations, which 4e tends to try to avoid (though they can come up if you choose your terrain poorly). It isn't 'overlooked', at least it never was by me! I think it was the main point of the wizard really, and one argument for a 'blaster' type of build. By saying its overt control was sometimes weak and inconsistent I wasn't really trying to dis the class. PHB1 wizard is actually a very nicely designed class.Yeah, AP and then the Mage really put the suck on wizards, and the whole game, kinda. It just made running them simplistic. I'm not sure they REALLY got a huge power boost (there was some, but fighters etc. all got stronger over time) but they became a lot easier to run without having to think about it. Party-friendly at-wills was the low point IMHO. I've come to the conclusion that Mike Mearls is simply insane. I don't understand or agree with ANYTHING that he says or does at this point. His recent comments about 1e for instance were utterly ludicrous. I mean I literally dismiss out of hand anything that comes from that quarter. He's got his wish, the current edition of D&D is a swamp of retrospection and weird Gygax worship strangely mixed with elements of 3e. I have no idea what to make of it.I've seen a few 'amateur' martial controllers. None of them so far has impressed me, but there are probably 100 more out there I know nothing of. I don't doubt that some of them at least have a couple good ideas. Few and far between were the people with both the talent AND persistence to make a decent 4e class.</blockquote>

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