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David Noonan on D&D Complexity
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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3120853" data-attributes="member: 3146"><p>Two things about this:</p><p></p><p>1. I LIKE the grapple rules. They aren't perfect, but they do what they are meant to do pretty well and if you actually have experience with them, they run quickly and efficiently. That's a VAST improvement over any previous edition of the game and over most other games I've had the ability to peruse as well.</p><p></p><p>Where the grapple rules are weak is in the way they buried some important rules for creatures grappling in the back of the MM under "rake" and did not choose to list iterative grapple checks in the monster entries. Another weakness is the overpowered rules for constrict, but those are relatively minor and specific entries. On the whole, the grapple rules are IMO one of the attractions of the 3.x ruleset not one of its problems.</p><p></p><p>2. All dragons are not the same. People often say "dragon battles are like this" or "like that" without considering that the different dragons bring very different abilities to the table. White dragons, for instance, never get much in the way of spellcasting or a particularly deadly breath weapon. They do, however, get excellent melee attacks for their CR. A fight with a white dragon at all but the highest levels is more about duking it out with swords against claws and its clever use of its icy environs than about breath weapons and spells. A red dragon, on the other hand, has a positively devastating breath weapon and a horde of spells at its command. A fight with a red dragon is going to feature much less clawing and biting and much more breath weapons and spells than a fight with a white dragon.</p><p></p><p>So, while dragons are overdesigned, the core rules allow DMs who want to use a dragon to choose how overdesigned they like their dragons by selecting a different kind of dragon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 3120853, member: 3146"] Two things about this: 1. I LIKE the grapple rules. They aren't perfect, but they do what they are meant to do pretty well and if you actually have experience with them, they run quickly and efficiently. That's a VAST improvement over any previous edition of the game and over most other games I've had the ability to peruse as well. Where the grapple rules are weak is in the way they buried some important rules for creatures grappling in the back of the MM under "rake" and did not choose to list iterative grapple checks in the monster entries. Another weakness is the overpowered rules for constrict, but those are relatively minor and specific entries. On the whole, the grapple rules are IMO one of the attractions of the 3.x ruleset not one of its problems. 2. All dragons are not the same. People often say "dragon battles are like this" or "like that" without considering that the different dragons bring very different abilities to the table. White dragons, for instance, never get much in the way of spellcasting or a particularly deadly breath weapon. They do, however, get excellent melee attacks for their CR. A fight with a white dragon at all but the highest levels is more about duking it out with swords against claws and its clever use of its icy environs than about breath weapons and spells. A red dragon, on the other hand, has a positively devastating breath weapon and a horde of spells at its command. A fight with a red dragon is going to feature much less clawing and biting and much more breath weapons and spells than a fight with a white dragon. So, while dragons are overdesigned, the core rules allow DMs who want to use a dragon to choose how overdesigned they like their dragons by selecting a different kind of dragon. [/QUOTE]
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