Bounded Accuracy L&L


log in or register to remove this ad




Great post. It really confirms everything we need to know about their design philosophy for accuracy bonuses, the flat math, etc.

It does leave me with one question I've been wondering though, and I ask this in all honesty: If we assume that 5 goblins are a challenge to a party of 1st-level characters, how many of you DMs are going to have the patience to manage, let's say, 25 goblins fighting a party of 10th-level adventurers?
 

In principle this is right on the money for me. The relative DC system of 4e was one of my primary issues with that system as against an absolute DC system where the difficulty of a task is relative to the task not the character.

However, this would seem to place a great deal of pressure on hit points as the primary determiner of ability be it in how many your character has or how easily they can take opponent's away. There needs to be perfect clarity with how hit points are interpreted as given in the playtest document. Hit points more than ever are representative of screen time. I'm cautiously optimistic that this can work out well even if it takes a bit of work to get it right and straighten out some of the kinks (Reaper I'm looking at you).

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
 


I am in total agreement with almost everything said in this article.

I am extremely happy to hear that DCs don't scale with level, as that never made any sense to me at all. Why should a door be DC 10 to break down at 1st level but DC 25 to break down at 30th level? That makes absolutely no sense and means that all the level up bonuses the character gained don't really mean anything since he's not actually any more likely to succeed at something than he was when he was lower level.

I also like how, with fewer bonuses, those bonuses are more precious and meaningful. I like how a 20th level wizard, who has probably not really spent any time training with weapons, doesn't need to get a +10 to hit just because he's higher level. Despite that, the wizard can still pick up a weapon and at least try to use it with some chance of success, since he might only be +5 or whatever behind the fighter. I also like how this allows DMs far greater flexibility in what monsters to throw at the players. A mob of peasents can still threaten a group of high level characters, rather than being a trival concern.

The only concern I have is all the talk about hp and damage bloat being the primary way characters advance. It seems contrary to many of the goals they discuss when talking about flatter math. I'm not saying that characters shouldn't gain any hit points or damage as they level, I'd just like to see that part of the math be flatter as well. A mob of peasents might be able to hit you, and be a potential threat that way, but they're still a trivial encounter if the wizard can wipe them all of the face of the map with an AoE spell, due to their low hit points and the wizard's extremely high damage.
 

To me, it's still number bloats. Instead of just enlarging the hit and damage numbers, they're just doubling up on the damage part.

First level characters still won't be fighting trolls, and once regular trolls get mundane, there will be ubertrolls (or whatever they called) that are tougher than regular trolls.

Having played for 10 levels and going from killing a handful of goblins to killing 86 goblins on a regular basis isn't exactly something that sounds thrilling. Why do you think we have 3-5 or more MM's per edition?
 

Is there any real downside of lower bonuses? The only real query for me is having a sense of progress as a character. So a lot will depend on the abilities (dare I say powers?) you get when you level up in giving you a sense of doing new things and a feeling that you are more powerful.

In particular I am hoping the flatter bonuses will help keeping the sweet spot as broad as possible. I like the broad sweet spot of 4th, and I think/hope that flatter maths will help this.
 

Remove ads

Top