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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
An in depth rules discussion on the mechanical problems and breakthroughs of 4e
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<blockquote data-quote="BendBars/LiftGates" data-source="post: 4272350" data-attributes="member: 58779"><p>This is my favorite mechanical advancement of 4th Edition:</p><p></p><p><strong>All your character's major mechanical abilities (attacks, AC, defenses, skills, ability checks) are in line with each other.</strong></p><p></p><p>This means that I can make a Strength-based attack against your AC. Or, I can make a Strength-based attack against your Reflex defense. But, even more interestingly, in some strange circumstance I could be asked to make a Constitution-based attack against your Will defense. Or, I could make a Wisdom-based attack opposed by your Athletics check (don't ask me what that would be). There might be different advantages to using one tactic versus another, and some might be far more commonplace, but it simply wasn't possible in 3rd Edition because attack bonuses were incompatible with saving throw bonuses were incompatible with skill checks were incompatible with ability checks. The DCs asked of each were simply on wholly different scales in the later stages of the game. In 4th Edition, the designers have kept all of these different faculties advancing by level at some baseline rate (1/2 level), and this is very important.</p><p></p><p>It means that skill checks are actually nothing more than ability checks that you can choose to specialize in for specific circumstances (but not to the huge extent that you could in 3rd Edition).</p><p></p><p>I see 3rd Edition's major mechanical breakthrough as being the d20 roll: finally, for the first time in D&D's history, there was one single method for resolving almost any task, and it opened up a lot of design space. You can say what you like about non-Vancian magic, about class roles, about new monster design, about skill challenges, but in my opinion this is the single greatest advancement made to the game by 4th Edition, and it can be felt but rarely is it directly noticed by the player. Still, it's in my opinion exactly the sort of thing that Mearls (I think it was Mearls) was talking about when he talked about opening up design space.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BendBars/LiftGates, post: 4272350, member: 58779"] This is my favorite mechanical advancement of 4th Edition: [B]All your character's major mechanical abilities (attacks, AC, defenses, skills, ability checks) are in line with each other.[/B] This means that I can make a Strength-based attack against your AC. Or, I can make a Strength-based attack against your Reflex defense. But, even more interestingly, in some strange circumstance I could be asked to make a Constitution-based attack against your Will defense. Or, I could make a Wisdom-based attack opposed by your Athletics check (don't ask me what that would be). There might be different advantages to using one tactic versus another, and some might be far more commonplace, but it simply wasn't possible in 3rd Edition because attack bonuses were incompatible with saving throw bonuses were incompatible with skill checks were incompatible with ability checks. The DCs asked of each were simply on wholly different scales in the later stages of the game. In 4th Edition, the designers have kept all of these different faculties advancing by level at some baseline rate (1/2 level), and this is very important. It means that skill checks are actually nothing more than ability checks that you can choose to specialize in for specific circumstances (but not to the huge extent that you could in 3rd Edition). I see 3rd Edition's major mechanical breakthrough as being the d20 roll: finally, for the first time in D&D's history, there was one single method for resolving almost any task, and it opened up a lot of design space. You can say what you like about non-Vancian magic, about class roles, about new monster design, about skill challenges, but in my opinion this is the single greatest advancement made to the game by 4th Edition, and it can be felt but rarely is it directly noticed by the player. Still, it's in my opinion exactly the sort of thing that Mearls (I think it was Mearls) was talking about when he talked about opening up design space. [/QUOTE]
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An in depth rules discussion on the mechanical problems and breakthroughs of 4e
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