Dragon Editorial: Fearless

[Fallen Seraph]

Yeah this works so well with my games.

With my games I use dungeons and the occasional city/forest encounters as the rock-and-roll, take no questions period of my generally slower more politically/mentally minded games. As such I don't want it slowed down from the PCs being worried sick about save-or-die monsters and traps I want them to charge ahead and face the dangers of the dungeon and then ALL come out panting the other side.

 

[A'koss]

A stronger emphasis on cinematic action is exactly what I've been hoping for with 4e. But while these low level (and the odd paragon-level) playtest reports are all well and good - where are the Epic Level reports?!

I'd like to see some examples of what combat is like in the majors...

 

[Dwelian]

Hogwash. 4e vs 3e is irrelevant to the fact that if you play for a DM that will kill you off due to one bad die roll, you're simply playing for a bad DM.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Tell me about it!

I ran a game for a group and they acted like SWAT team mixed with scientists, testing every hole and door and suspicious looking barrel like it was a doorway to the dimension of fangydoom. It got real tiring, real fast.

That is, according to some old-timers, the way D&D is supposed to be played, and why the Tomb of Horrors was such a proving ground.

As for myself, I shed no tears over its passing.

 

[MerricB]

Tracy Hickman will be delighted!

Cheers!

 

[Rechan]

That is, according to some old-timers, the way D&D is supposed to be played, and why the Tomb of Horrors was such a proving ground.

Except from what I have heard, nothing, no amount of SWAT teaming really saved you in that. It's just like saying "Flip a coin. Tails, you are out. Heads, you move to the next flip."

 

[Incenjucar]

My solution to dungeons of doom was always to just destroy them without bothering to enter.

Just a much wiser solution for the character to come up with than "okay, I enter the place that will most likely kill me."

 

[Warbringer]

I have to say that 4e is turning out to play exactly the way I thought it would ....

Now to work out if I want to run that type of game, and whether 4e can be toned down

 

[Celebrim]

So it's not a bug, it's a feature.

Yeah, its turning out pretty much exactly how I imagined as well. No risks. No dread. Lots of tactical illusionism. Heroic feats attempted not because the situation demands you take the risk, but just because you can and because well they really aren't risks. Even players not being able to make sound judgements because the game universe bears so little relationship to the real one. The worst sort of cornball action movie as the standard of dramatic tension. It's all there. Nerfworld. Everything bounces. Everything is now the 'I can jump off the 60' cliff because it can't really hurt me' problem.

My suspicion is that the game is something like Diablo II now. The only thing that kills you is boredom. That is to say, you get extremely overconfident, stop being even moderately cautious, or stop paying at all attention because the last X fights have been repetitive and that's what kills you.

Now, as far as the actual encounter goes, that's really cool. I'm all for runaway carts and splating darkmantles on your shield. But I'm not sure that I'm happy with the idea of the player/character anything but terrified when doing so, and I don't see how this encounter couldn't be ran in 3E with 6th level PC's or so, setting DC's and CR's accordingly. Essentially, this is a long series of forced CR 1-4 encounters occuring in rapid succession. It's not a new feature. You could have run it in 1E using the old mechanics of Dex checks and save vs. paralyzation.

Good encounter design doesn't show off the new system as much as they think it does. It just shows that they are using sophisticated encounter design. Bully for them.

As for splatting darkmantles, well, the trick would be to have them strike perfectly perpendicular to the shield. If they did that, then the impact would be about equivalent to a 20' fall. Since the darkmantle only has 6 hp, its quite reasonable that the impact could kill them. But I'd be very skeptical of your ability to do anything but a glancing blow to a darkmantle while swooping along at 30mph. But even if we rule only 1d6 damage, thats still potentially enough to kill one, and the flavor of the desription is worth the slight exaggeration IMO.

 

[Voss]

So it's not a bug, it's a feature.

Yeah, its turning out pretty much exactly how I imagined as well. No risks. No dread. Lots of tactical illusionism. Heroic feats attempted not because the situation demands you take the risk, but just because you can and because well they really aren't risks. Even players not being able to make sound judgements because the game universe bears so little relationship to the real one. The worst sort of cornball action movie as the standard of dramatic tension. It's all there. Nerfworld. Everything bounces. Everything is now the 'I can jump off the 60' cliff because it can't really hurt me' problem.

I think my biggest problem with this set up is the heroic feats aren't really heroic anymore. They're just everyday routine tasks.

My suspicion is that the game is something like Diablo II now. The only thing that kills you is boredom. That is to say, you get extremely overconfident, stop being even moderately cautious, or stop paying at all attention because the last X fights have been repetitive and that's what kills you.

Sadly, I suspect that DII will be two slow for 4e pacing. At least going by this article.

As for splatting darkmantles, well, the trick would be to have them strike perfectly perpendicular to the shield. If they did that, then the impact would be about equivalent to a 20' fall. Since the darkmantle only has 6 hp, its quite reasonable that the impact could kill them. But I'd be very skeptical of your ability to do anything but a glancing blow to a darkmantle while swooping along at 30mph. But even if we rule only 1d6 damage, thats still potentially enough to kill one, and the flavor of the desription is worth the slight exaggeration IMO.

Oh. I guess I was confusing darkmantles with something else. Probably cloakers, since they're essentially the same monster... I didn't realize they were that weak.