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David Noonan on D&D Complexity
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<blockquote data-quote="Justin Bacon" data-source="post: 3124687" data-attributes="member: 3795"><p>There are two things I don't like about it: First, it means absolutely nothing in the context of the game world. Second, even from a metagame standpoint, its meaning is more than fuzzy: What exactly is an encounter? When does it end? If a character casts a Strength buff to help them jump over a chasm, does the buff end once he's jumped the chasm? What if he jumps the chasm and is ambushed two rounds later by the orcs on the other side? What if he jumps the chasm, waits a couple of minutes, and then goes down a hallway and gets attacked by an orc? What if he's in the middle of a battlefield during a battle which lasts for half a day?</p><p></p><p>Also: What do you mean by "optimum order"?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In practice, I think you're better off:</p><p></p><p>(a) Backing off the 3.5 decision that buff spells should only last for a single encounter. This complicates bookkeeping because, if you pop up a buff that lasts for an hour or more, you typically don't have to worry about it in the middle of a combat. It also degrades gameplay, IMO, because it encourages the "rapid flurry of activity followed by 23.5 hours of resting until the clerics can prep their spells again".</p><p></p><p>(b) Standardizing buff durations (instead of having them based on caster level). This way when the cleric casts three buffs on you and the wizard/rogue casts another couple you don't have two different durations to keep track of.</p><p></p><p>At that point you don't need any kind of rule to "reset" buff timers: You simply note the order in which the buffs were cast and the time at which the first buff was cast. When the buff duration is up, the first buff drops, followed by a subsequent buff on each round. (Although, if you've extended the durations so that they're not as likely to drop in the middle of combat, you can generally just ignore all this bookkeeping.)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think a strong case could be made that Dispel Magic could be made a little more versatile, a little less powerful, and a lot less of a hassle. You could boil Dispel Magic down to two discrete choices:</p><p></p><p>1. Target a specific spell.</p><p></p><p>2. Target multiple spells within a specific area, but suffer a -1 penalty to your dispel check for every additional spell you're simultaneously attempting to dispel.</p><p></p><p>In either case, you make a single dispel check for all of the effects you're going after.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Letting Dodge bonuses stack is probably useful: It's a bonus type that already has special rules associated with it, and it lets you define a stackable bonus that can be stripped away by opponents in specific situations (blunting the advantage of having it stackable). From a game design standpoint, I think it's useful. And managing two special case rules for the bonus type </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Agreed. The flying chart can actually be simplified quite a bit simply by organizing it better (this helps a lot, IME), but I think a strong case can be made that the flight rules are a lot of crunch with little benefit.</p><p></p><p>You could probably boil it down thusly while still leaving some valuable crunch: Creatures with perfect flight maneuverability can more in the air just as easily as anyone else can move on the ground. All other creatures have to move a minimum of half their speed each round, can't fly backwards, and have to move 5 ft. for every 45-degree turn (left, right, up, or down) made.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Justin Bacon, post: 3124687, member: 3795"] There are two things I don't like about it: First, it means absolutely nothing in the context of the game world. Second, even from a metagame standpoint, its meaning is more than fuzzy: What exactly is an encounter? When does it end? If a character casts a Strength buff to help them jump over a chasm, does the buff end once he's jumped the chasm? What if he jumps the chasm and is ambushed two rounds later by the orcs on the other side? What if he jumps the chasm, waits a couple of minutes, and then goes down a hallway and gets attacked by an orc? What if he's in the middle of a battlefield during a battle which lasts for half a day? Also: What do you mean by "optimum order"? In practice, I think you're better off: (a) Backing off the 3.5 decision that buff spells should only last for a single encounter. This complicates bookkeeping because, if you pop up a buff that lasts for an hour or more, you typically don't have to worry about it in the middle of a combat. It also degrades gameplay, IMO, because it encourages the "rapid flurry of activity followed by 23.5 hours of resting until the clerics can prep their spells again". (b) Standardizing buff durations (instead of having them based on caster level). This way when the cleric casts three buffs on you and the wizard/rogue casts another couple you don't have two different durations to keep track of. At that point you don't need any kind of rule to "reset" buff timers: You simply note the order in which the buffs were cast and the time at which the first buff was cast. When the buff duration is up, the first buff drops, followed by a subsequent buff on each round. (Although, if you've extended the durations so that they're not as likely to drop in the middle of combat, you can generally just ignore all this bookkeeping.) I think a strong case could be made that Dispel Magic could be made a little more versatile, a little less powerful, and a lot less of a hassle. You could boil Dispel Magic down to two discrete choices: 1. Target a specific spell. 2. Target multiple spells within a specific area, but suffer a -1 penalty to your dispel check for every additional spell you're simultaneously attempting to dispel. In either case, you make a single dispel check for all of the effects you're going after. Letting Dodge bonuses stack is probably useful: It's a bonus type that already has special rules associated with it, and it lets you define a stackable bonus that can be stripped away by opponents in specific situations (blunting the advantage of having it stackable). From a game design standpoint, I think it's useful. And managing two special case rules for the bonus type Agreed. The flying chart can actually be simplified quite a bit simply by organizing it better (this helps a lot, IME), but I think a strong case can be made that the flight rules are a lot of crunch with little benefit. You could probably boil it down thusly while still leaving some valuable crunch: Creatures with perfect flight maneuverability can more in the air just as easily as anyone else can move on the ground. All other creatures have to move a minimum of half their speed each round, can't fly backwards, and have to move 5 ft. for every 45-degree turn (left, right, up, or down) made. [/QUOTE]
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