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Do YOU nod to "realism"?
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5762740" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>Yes, but this isn't necessarily a probably with the reality per se, it's a problem with two areas:</p><p></p><p>1) The plethora of splat books where each one has to be just a tiny bit more bigger, better, and badder where balance slowly bends in favor of the PCs. It gets to the point that very few players have PCs that are not heavily optimized.</p><p></p><p>2) A general problem with there being no design metarules to control powers, items, and feats at given levels due to the power of the synergy of effects and conditions. In other words, combining immobilized/slowed with prone is a fairly potent ability for monsters with no ranged attacks, almost equal to sending the NPC offstage for a round (e.g. sending it to the Feywild, turning it into a frog, etc.). At the levels that immobilized/slowed and prone are readily available, the monsters need to start acquiring abilities to overcome the tactic. Even by having most every high level monster with a ranged attack or with resistance to getting knocked prone or immobilized, this tactic becomes less viable.</p><p></p><p>These are game mechanic design flaws that result in the PCs being a lot stronger than the monsters as they get higher in level, not necessarily reality problems for most players. When at Epic, I want to be playing a DemiGod that feels epic. I just also want my challenges to be epic as well and that cannot happen with the original epic monster design.</p><p></p><p>Btw, if you restrict the books (and specifically items) available to the players, some of this disappears because many of the cool tricks and synergies disappear. Players don't have the absolute best powers and feats and combinations anymore.</p><p></p><p>I think it is important for the higher level monsters to challenge the players so that battles FEEL epic and hence, support the reality of the game world. As DM, it's a DM's responsibility (like you are doing) to alter the monsters of the game world as the PCs get higher level so that they are challenging to the players in order to reintroduce the fiction that he wants for his campaign. Too many DMs tend to play monsters how they are written in the books and because of the vast plethora of options to players, that's a mistake for the fiction.</p><p></p><p>It's also a mistake to hand out the absolutely best perfect items for given PCs as part of treasure parcels. PCs should, for the most part, get relatively typical type items that help the PCs, but are not perfect matches. All perfect matches should be instigated by the players and found via quests or serious effort. That allows the higher level fiction to be a bit closer because the PCs cannot do every uber thing that the optimization boards suggest.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 5762740, member: 2011"] Yes, but this isn't necessarily a probably with the reality per se, it's a problem with two areas: 1) The plethora of splat books where each one has to be just a tiny bit more bigger, better, and badder where balance slowly bends in favor of the PCs. It gets to the point that very few players have PCs that are not heavily optimized. 2) A general problem with there being no design metarules to control powers, items, and feats at given levels due to the power of the synergy of effects and conditions. In other words, combining immobilized/slowed with prone is a fairly potent ability for monsters with no ranged attacks, almost equal to sending the NPC offstage for a round (e.g. sending it to the Feywild, turning it into a frog, etc.). At the levels that immobilized/slowed and prone are readily available, the monsters need to start acquiring abilities to overcome the tactic. Even by having most every high level monster with a ranged attack or with resistance to getting knocked prone or immobilized, this tactic becomes less viable. These are game mechanic design flaws that result in the PCs being a lot stronger than the monsters as they get higher in level, not necessarily reality problems for most players. When at Epic, I want to be playing a DemiGod that feels epic. I just also want my challenges to be epic as well and that cannot happen with the original epic monster design. Btw, if you restrict the books (and specifically items) available to the players, some of this disappears because many of the cool tricks and synergies disappear. Players don't have the absolute best powers and feats and combinations anymore. I think it is important for the higher level monsters to challenge the players so that battles FEEL epic and hence, support the reality of the game world. As DM, it's a DM's responsibility (like you are doing) to alter the monsters of the game world as the PCs get higher level so that they are challenging to the players in order to reintroduce the fiction that he wants for his campaign. Too many DMs tend to play monsters how they are written in the books and because of the vast plethora of options to players, that's a mistake for the fiction. It's also a mistake to hand out the absolutely best perfect items for given PCs as part of treasure parcels. PCs should, for the most part, get relatively typical type items that help the PCs, but are not perfect matches. All perfect matches should be instigated by the players and found via quests or serious effort. That allows the higher level fiction to be a bit closer because the PCs cannot do every uber thing that the optimization boards suggest. [/QUOTE]
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