D&D 5E D&D NEXT: Adding dex mod to hp, taking it off ac.

[underfoot007ct]

If they suddenly changed the rules to include this... I'd be absolutely fine with it.

Here's the thing... many of us believe that the game and the story are really two separate things. We need game mechanics because we're playing a game. We're rolling dice, we have game rules, we have conflict and resolution using said rules and dice. In addition to that... we have a cooperative fantasy story that the players at the table are writing together.

In truth, we don't NEED game mechanics to tell our story. Anyone who's done long-form improvisation or something like Fiasco can tell you that. The story can get written by all the participants whether or not we include dice rolls or not. As a result...

YES, absolutely correct.

WE have never needed rules to speak to the inn keeper or explain the story.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The mechanics are the difference between a storygame (where the end goal is creating a story) and a role-playing game (where the end goal is playing a role and the story comes after-the-fact).

And yet... some would say you can play a role without needing game mechanics either.

As a matter of fact... in every "storygame" I play... I'm also playing a role. For which I do not need hyperdetailed game mechanics telling me what I'm doing. I just make it up.

You don't feel that way... that's fine. But Empath Negative wanted to know how some of us might feel about changing around what all the fluff means on all the dice rolls... to which I answered. Wouldn't make much of a lick of difference to me.

 

[B.T.]

I know I'm getting a bit off topic here, but can you elaborate a bit? I'm totally confused, because I run 4e with a 'damage always = injury,' and I'm trying to see what about 4e makes this impossible for you.

In no particular order: healing surges, non-magical instant healing, extended rest heailng. If you're going to play up hit points as physical damage--and I do, as I absolutely loathe the concept of hit points as luck, divine favor, morale, or, God forbid, plot armor--4e makes it very difficult to do so. With a plethora of effects that offer instant, non-magical healing (including the warlord cajoling you back to health, martial powers that restore health on a hit, and the innate self-healing of all characters), I don't see it working.

I know this is one of those arguments that has been hashed out endlessly since the release of 4e, but 4e healing mechanics rub me the wrong way. As I said, I'm okay with some level of compromise, but I can't wrap my head around healing surges and whatnot.

 

[Mallus]

Note where I said "Expertise? Expertise is where you roll with a punch, dexterity is where you dodge the punch altogether.

Note that I think you're equivocating, but let's run with this; hit points represent "expertise" and dexterity represents "dodging".

So a character's ability to dodge doesn't increase with level. At all. Unless they are playing a monk in AD&D/3e or any class in 4e?

Is this correct?

Nitpicking aside, everything you say is true.

I know. (apologies to Harrison Ford...)

But for some of us, "Well that's the way it's always been, and I'm used to it" just isn't a satisfying solution.

I'm not criticizing anyone's preferences, or their desire for new mechanics, I just wanted to be clear about what the old mechanics were intended to represent.