POWER ESCALATION RUINS THE D&D GAME AND MAKES D&D HYBORIA DIFFICULT IF NOT DEALT WITH
Griffith Dragonlake said:
Not trying to hijack this tread. Any thoughts on how to reclaim that Conanesque feel to combat under 3.x, CONAN RPG, or Iron Heroes rules?
Griffith:
I've been of the same thinking since 3.0 came out. I've found that Power Escalation is the #1 reason why 3.0 combats get bogged down. Power escalation is when the core 3.0 system becomes broken by a COMBINATION of: constant access to buff's, high AC's, high HP's, high ability scores, ability to supercede nature at every turn, excessive magic items...which results in DM's moving towards low level EPIC-DIFFICULTY games...which causes players to focus on power escalation even more in response.
As yourself this question: if your typical D&D group changed to the situation below, what would happen to player thinking? Would your players walk away because everyday wasn't christmas like in the typical D&D game?
* face human opponents 95% of the time that have discernable cultures (stygian, shem)
* face one wizard every game who was more ego than power (laugh)
* face one 'monster' every game that was RUN OR DIE
* only found charged magical items (including swords for the sake of argument)
* had to save their buff spells for emergencies
* have more FEATS but fewer hit points in advancing levels (always leaving you eligible to be killed by someone)
* got x.p. for the role-playing of spending loot equal to that of killing stuff
* no resurrection/raise dead/cure disease/fly/teleport/create food& water/endure elements
* the spellcasters in your party were NEVER really that powerful and clerics didn't exist
* power over people was more 'powerful' than the riddle of the steel
* your party was never balanced
* you'll use a LOT of Action Points to stabilize
* you can make cool actions with skill checks that will give you a simple +2 or better bonus (for example, swing from a chandalier onto a group of enemies..take a -4 climb per +1 to hit DC 10)..this the ONLY Iron Heroes rule I use.
That's pretty much what it's like. The DM has most of the burden of making sure that it's not too crazy.
Some guys get overwhelmed thinking they're going to have to do a bunch of human stat blocks. I don't bother. I just use the stats for Orcs, Gnolls, Lizard men, Kobolds or whatever I want and then just say "Shemite" or "Styigan" or "Eiglophian Witiko."
If you play the CONAN game they've got stat blocks for that stuff. I still prefer the SRD(D&D).
jh
P.S. IRON HEROES or BOOK OF 9 SWORDS will NOT speed up your game although they are very cool and relevant. The combat effects take just as long as a high-magic game (except it's technically low magic).
" The setting stands on it's own.
)
) and desribing the gory details albeit with a sense of urgency. In most cases I'm able to get my players' adrenaline pumping and combat gets quite exciting.
In 1st and 2nd editions, I could finish combats in slightly less time than one side of an LP took (~22.5 mins). Nowadays I go through multiple CDs just to run the same fights. 
