D&D General DM Says No Powergaming?

[overgeeked]

Was their fear aura greater than the range of a longbow? I don't remember.

There’s no range. The act of flying overhead or charging is enough.

 

[Greg Benage]

There’s no range. The act of flying overhead or charging is enough.

That's way better. Does the HD limit come into effect, or is it any number of peasants?

 

[Cadence]

You brought up the cow.

Yup.

My first post was about range and droppjng cows. You responded to the range part.

My second was about dropping arrows. You responded about cows.

I'll take advantage on the arrows hitting since you and your villagers are distracted by worrying about the cows ;-)

 

[Maxperson]

But RAW, the DM calls for rolls if they decide something is in doubt.

Those are skill check rules, not combat rules.

Does anyone ever actually sit through the DM playing a town versus a dragon by himself? Or does the DM just create the scenario of the town in need and then let the players decide how their characters interact with that?

I doubt it. This is about how weak dragons now are due to overly bounded accuracy. It was good that they bounded it, but they should have played a bit looser with it and not allowed regular weapons to hurt an older dragon.

 

[overgeeked]

That's way better. Does the HD limit come into effect, or is it any number of peasants?

It’s only for adult or older dragons. The effect changes based on HD but there is no listed limit to the number of effected targets.

 

[overgeeked]

Those are skill check rules, not combat rules.

I doubt it. This is about how weak dragons now are due to overly bounded accuracy. It was good that they bounded it, but they should have played a bit looser with it and not allowed regular weapons to hurt an older dragon.

Even something as simple as needing a +1 magical weapon to-hit would be enough.

 

[Maxperson]

Someone should teach them the concepts of opportunity cost and competitive advantage. The free wood and bow factory are amazing resources. So even if the bows don’t cost them 50gp each in cash, they’re worth that much.

Ordinarily I’d say there may not be a local market for that many longbows, but with all these towns gearing up for dragon attacks, I think there’s a lot of demand in the market. So rather than outfit their own peasants with longbows, our town should sell them for a massive profit — 120,000gp for 2,400 longbows and negligible cash costs!

Not dragon attacks. Orcs, goblins, raiders, bandits, etc. They'd be armed for those reasons, as well as hunting.

That should allow them to hire an adventuring party with a hundred grand or so to keep the burgermeister’s offshore accounts topped off.

Where is this party, though. That's the major hurdle. There are very few groups capable of taking on a dragon and those groups rarely walk through a village at just the right time.

 

[Greg Benage]

Where is this party, though. That's the major hurdle. There are very few groups capable of taking on a dragon and those groups rarely walk through a village at just the right time.

Seems like they'd be easier to find than 1,200 peasants with readied actions guarding every angle of attack.

 

[Maxperson]

Even something as simple as needing a +1 magical weapon to-hit would be enough.

This isn't the only bounded accuracy issue that has come up, though. It would have been much better had they bounded class bonuses at +10 over 20 levels and then increased armor some more. You'd still have monsters be a threat for longer periods, but you wouldn't have high CR and epic monsters capable of being taken out by peasants.

 

[Greg Benage]

This isn't the only bounded accuracy issue that has come up, though.

Again, it's not a bounded accuracy issue at all. The only thing saving the AD&D dragon was unlimited fear aura, not his 88 hit points.