D&D (2024) Do players really want balance?

[Oofta]

Crawford said as much here: x.com

I don't see how that relates to attrition one way or another. As long as the DM knows the baseline that's all that matters, targeting "fresh" PCs is the baseline. I have no idea how else you would do it.

What kind of terrain might I find in an adventure between locations? What penalties or ways to attack resources might I use beyond just spell slots, ever-climbing HP, and maybe exhaustion?I know there’s 3PP, but if the greater world of DMs isn’t terminally online talking about D&D, they may not even be aware of such a thing. Their game would be enriched by it being included in the default corebooks, and we’d all have a default resource to rely on.

How are they supposed to tell you what environments are when every campaign has unique environments? The basic penalties are exhaustion, damage, whether or not you can rest and is it a long or short rest. If you want more detailed rules there were rules for sustained injuries and other effects in the 2014 DMG.

 

[Oofta]

Well, just from simple encounter calculations, a party of two 7th and two 8th level PCs against those encounters rank as Deadly and Hard.

So, sure if you are typically throwing such things at your PCs, the players are probably exhausted!

And? If it's supposed to be a difficult fight then it should be ... wait for it ... difficult. The difficulty guidelines are just that, guidelines. Encounter design has always been more art than science and every group has different capabilities, often drastically so.

 

[Oofta]

For me the response to death spirals being a problem is to as a player do what I can to avoid being in one, not to simplify then put of the game. If my PC gets hurt I want that to matter.

There are optional rules for that. Most people don't want to use them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't need or want rules for exploration, I need them for combat. If you want detailed rules they're out there so I don't see what the issue is. You keep insisting on bringing in outside rules to a 2024 D&D discussion but then pretend nothing outside of the official rules don't exist? Choose a lane.

I'm happy to use other rules than official D&D. I do it all the time. But the players who hyperfocus on the official game (either because they only care about WotC, or they don't know any different) would IMO opinion benefit from more granular options in the DMG. It's not all about what works for me personally.

 

[Oofta]

I'm happy to use other rules than official D&D. I do it all the time. But the players who hyperfocus on the official game (either because they only care about WotC, or they don't know any different) would IMO opinion benefit from more granular options in the DMG. It's not all about what works for me personally.

All I can say is that I disagree. I don't want, nor have I ever needed, more granular rules. I've never had a DM or player in an actual game who expressed a desire for them.

No game can be for everyone. We've established long ago and many times that D&D probably isn't the right game for you. Doesn't mean anyone else is going to agree with what you personally want.

 

[Xenolith234]

I'm happy to use other rules than official D&D. I do it all the time. But the players who hyperfocus on the official game (either because they only care about WotC, or they don't know any different) would IMO opinion benefit from more granular options in the DMG. It's not all about what works for me personally.

For a long time I was not aware that 3rd party content could be and often is better than 1st party content. However, I also wasn’t able to discern what “good” 3rd party content looked like, so once I delved into it, I spent too much money looking for the right content before I was able to narrow it down. Now I see that the “good” content often isn’t released by WotC, unfortunately. They’re leaving money on the table by not fleshing out their subsystems in a meaningful way.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't see how that relates to attrition one way or another. As long as the DM knows the baseline that's all that matters, targeting "fresh" PCs is the baseline. I have no idea how else you would do it.



How are they supposed to tell you what environments are when every campaign has unique environments? The basic penalties are exhaustion, damage, whether or not you can rest and is it a long or short rest. If you want more detailed rules there were rules for sustained injuries and other effects in the 2014 DMG.

Level Up managed to showcase different environments just fine in their exploration rules, so I call shenanigans on it being impossible for WotC to do it.

Oh, sorry. Talking about not-5.5 again.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There are optional rules for that. Most people don't want to use them.

Your point? Since when does popularity come into optional rules?

And where exactly are the rules you're talking about? Are you referring to the gritty resting stuff in 5.0's DMG (which we have no evidence will even be in the 5.5 book at all)? Because that's not the same thing.

 

[Xenolith234]

Your point? Since when does popularity come into optional rules?

And where exactly are the rules you're talking about? Are you referring to the gritty resting stuff in 5.0's DMG (which we have no evidence will even be in the 5.5 book at all)? Because that's not the same thing.

I was actually wondering this too, because I don't recall any variant rules that talk about altering the death cycle.

 

[Micah Sweet]

All I can say is that I disagree. I don't want, nor have I ever needed, more granular rules. I've never had a DM or player in an actual game who expressed a desire for them.

No game can be for everyone. We've established long ago and many times that D&D probably isn't the right game for you. Doesn't mean anyone else is going to agree with what you personally want.

They don't have to. However, the definition of D&D has changed significantly over the years, and it certainly used to be what I want, so I think your claim that D&D isn't the right game for me is overly reductive.