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Casters vs Mundanes in your experience
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5916292" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I personally didn't find your list of rules that simple. Changing feats and XP tables, for example, are making pretty big changes to the basics of the PC build rules.</p><p></p><p>I would prefer a game that works out of the box. That's what I pay the designers for.</p><p></p><p>Does fireball, as an element of fantasy fiction, exist outside D&D? I've never encountered it, but then I don't read a lot of contemporary fantasy.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I do think that there is something wrong with casters overtaking non-casters. And it's not something that I expect. And in the fiction you yourself cited - as others pointed out - it is the non-caster who wins. One way to achieve this in RPG design is to give the non-casters more metagame resources. Which 4e does, via martial encounter and daily powers.</p><p></p><p>Yes. This is what I want from a game: a game in which, if I play by the rules, the player experience will be that which the story elements of the game appeared to promise.</p><p></p><p>The first version of D&D I played that ever really came close to this was (AD&D) Oriental Adventures. 4e is the next version that has given me this.</p><p></p><p>From Tom Moldvay's Foreword to the Basic Rulebook (page B2, and dated 3 December 1980):</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up. Fifty feet of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes. Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers. The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave. . .</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow collection of precious gems. I shoulted my battle cry and charged.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut just inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet. The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.</p><p></p><p>Those are classic fantasy tropes - the warrior as protagonist, the priest as mentor/guide, the dragon sorcerer as antagonist. This is what D&D promised to me in 1982, when I first got the Basic Set. Unbalanced wizards don't deliver on this promise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5916292, member: 42582"] I personally didn't find your list of rules that simple. Changing feats and XP tables, for example, are making pretty big changes to the basics of the PC build rules. I would prefer a game that works out of the box. That's what I pay the designers for. Does fireball, as an element of fantasy fiction, exist outside D&D? I've never encountered it, but then I don't read a lot of contemporary fantasy. Anyway, I do think that there is something wrong with casters overtaking non-casters. And it's not something that I expect. And in the fiction you yourself cited - as others pointed out - it is the non-caster who wins. One way to achieve this in RPG design is to give the non-casters more metagame resources. Which 4e does, via martial encounter and daily powers. Yes. This is what I want from a game: a game in which, if I play by the rules, the player experience will be that which the story elements of the game appeared to promise. The first version of D&D I played that ever really came close to this was (AD&D) Oriental Adventures. 4e is the next version that has given me this. From Tom Moldvay's Foreword to the Basic Rulebook (page B2, and dated 3 December 1980): [indent]I was busy rescuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up. Fifty feet of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes. Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers. The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave. . . I unwrapped the sword which the mysterious cleric had given me. The sword was golden-tinted steel. Its hilt was set with a rainbow collection of precious gems. I shoulted my battle cry and charged. My charge caught the dragon by surprise. Its titanic jaws snapped shut just inches from my face. I swung the golden sword with both arms. The swordblade bit into the dragon's neck and continued through to the other side. With an earth-shaking crash, the dragon dropped dead at my feet. The magic sword had saved my life and ended the reign of the dragon-tyrant. The countryside was freed and I could return as a hero.[/indent] Those are classic fantasy tropes - the warrior as protagonist, the priest as mentor/guide, the dragon sorcerer as antagonist. This is what D&D promised to me in 1982, when I first got the Basic Set. Unbalanced wizards don't deliver on this promise. [/QUOTE]
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