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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hassassin" data-source="post: 5747918" data-attributes="member: 6675228">Maybe I didn't make myself very clear.Compare:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Str 17: +3 to everything strength based. (3e)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Str 17: +2 to hit, +1 damage, +3 HP, +3 to Fort. Defense. (Your earlier post.)</li> </ol>The first is much simpler. The fact that the rule used to derive the ability modifier table (below) of 3e is (ability - 10)/2 doesn't really matter, just that the same ability modifier applies to everything using that ability.1: -5, 2-3: -4, 4-5: -3, 6-7: -2, 8-9: -1, 10-11: +0, 12-13: +1, 14-15: +2, 16-17: +3, 18-19: +4, etc.Ok, I again managed to say something else than I meant...If the rules are that 8 or lower give penalties and 15 or higher give penalties, what is the point of making a distinction between 9 and 14? I.e. almost everyone will be as good at dodging due to their dexterity if 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 give neither bonuses or penalties.Ok, so wouldn't it be better to define 12-13 (the likeliest result) as "above normal", so there would be less of a need to reroll?Basically, what I mean is that a dragon could have a single attack value, e.g. +10 for a dragon of a certain color and size. Then the dragon could use its breath weapon and roll against the targets' Reflex, or use its roar (frightful presence) and roll against Will, or its bite and roll against AC/physical defense.(That doesn't mean all monsters have to have one attack value. Young dragons, for example, might not yet have mastered their breath weapon very well and so had a lower attack bonus with it.)That's not possible if typical dragon-hunting adventurers have Reflex and Will in the range 1-10 while their AC is 40-50, for example. Then they'd always be hit by the breath weapon and never by the bite.Individual characters should, of course, be better at some defenses, but the overall scale should be the same for that to work.That's how I like to play too. Unfortunately, it requires some extra work in 3e and even more so in 4e. The assumption of having a certain level of magic items is build in too tightly. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />Yes, that's all good. I hope my dragon example above clarified what I mean by N in one thing being (relatively) as good as N in another.What I basically mean is that there are some core mechanics that work similarly regardless of which particular situation comes up in play.In 3e the basic core mechanic is that you roll 1d20 + you modifier and try to get above a target number. No matter if you are attacking, climbing, breaking down a door or hiding, the method you resolve success is the same.In 3e skill checks the target number is called the difficulty class (DC) and DC 10 means average, DC 15 tough and so on. Unfortunately, this isn't quite a universal mechanic since it doesn't apply to non-skill checks.If a fighter's average hp is 5/level, but average damage only increases by 1/level then a duel between two equally experienced fighters takes longer the higher level they are.You might consider that a problem or maybe not. I know 3e combat tends to take more and more time at higher levels, which slows the game down. I don't usually want to spend the whole session running a single combat encounter.</blockquote>

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