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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6089046" data-attributes="member: 22424">As the author of post #26, I feel I should direct you to also read post #31. My position is exactly as iwarrior-poet stated it: a player should never require a tool in order to play the game. But it is very likely that WotC will require the regular revenue associated with subscriptions in order for D&D to survive as a tabletop game.Therefore, it is incumbent on them to develop tools that are not required, but which are so desirable that a great many people choose to subscribe in order to get them. Which could be a combat manager, as you suggest, or could be as comparitively simple as an easily-referenced Compendium. But they'll need something.Not necessarily, due to scaling. As a DM (3.5e), I can handle a combat with about 5 PCs and about 5 distinct enemy types. (I can handle more foes, provided many are copies - for example, a dozen identical orcs is no problem.) Beyond that limit, my ability to keep all the required data organised is limited, the game slows down, and it becomes a chore.Give me a combat manager app, though, that will do all the condition tracking for me, inform me when the dragon's breath weapon has refreshed, or what have you, and suddenly my ability to handle things increases dramatically. The computer takes the strain, so I don't have to.The thing is, although 3.5e does indeed have a fairly cumbersome combat system, the same algebra applies to any system - the thresholds might be different, but eventually the sheer amount of data becomes intolerable.And so, 5e could conceivably create a combat system that is attractive to new players, and which is tuned for fairly small-scale battles. Then, provide a Combat Manager app that makes it easier... but which is very definitely a "nice to have" rather than a massive boon at this point.But as the game goes on, and groups want to move to ever more elaborate combats... that's when the Combat Manager really starts to show its advantages. Indeed, at that point it may become a necessity for combat to run smoothly. (And yet, it's not required - you can do all this by hand... it's just that you really wouldn't want to.)But in that latter stage, the desirability/need for a Combat Manager app has absolutely no bearing on new players, because new players will be starting with those small scale combats where it doesn't apply.</blockquote>

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