Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmu1" data-source="post: 3736848" data-attributes="member: 319">It's a matter of degrees. For example, sneak attack is a mechanical device - the circumstances under which you can use it are highly specific, some class abilities arbitrarily stop it from working, and it doesn't actually come close to representing all the possible outcomes attacking an unsuspecting or distracted target might have in real life. But it feels - to me, at least - reasonably natural. You hit someone when they don't see you, or when they're not paying attention, and you can land a better blow. (granted, only when you have Rogue levels, but I'm not after absolutes here)Now, what happens if you replace sneak attack as it is right now with an ability called... "Sinister Strike", let's say... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> that lets you do extra damage and which you can use at will 3 times per encounter? You're replacing a more complicated but subtler mechanic with one that is simpler but blatantly arbitrary. There's no internally consistant reason for it (or at least, there no longer needs to be), it's just a purely gamist implementation. Click a button, get more damage.   I don't necessarily think the 4E characters are going to end up being as bland and boring as that, but I don't like what I see as a step in that direction. I like D&D primarily because of all the ways it's not like boardgames, card games, videogames, etc., where the gameplay mechanics are right at the surface. I need at least a veneer of simulationism. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification