NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4231200" data-attributes="member: 1003">"Illusion" was the wrong word (my fault).  They're a marker for skill, just like BAB and AC, but they're analog/ablative, rather than binary/threshold.To briefly crib my own thread on this topic from a week ago (<a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=225821&highlight=aliens" target="_blank">LINK</a>), there are four primary variables to all agents with a 4E game (except Minions): HP, AC/Defense, BAB and Dmg.  (Dmg being the average amount of damage you can do with an attack).  These variables can be arranged in a simple quadrant of "Defense vs. Offense" and "Threshold vs. Ablative".Core D&D advances all four variables, but you can remove advancement in pairs.  If you remove BAB/AC advancement you get a Heroic Fantasy game where one high level dude can fight off 50 1st level orcs before succumbing (the Boromir situation).  If you remove HP/Dmg advancement you get a Gritty Fantasy setting where even a 20th level dude can be killed by an Orc drudge who rolls a crit (the Layer Cake situation).But you have to adjust them in their correct opposing pairs (Ablative to Ablative, Threshold to Threshold).  If you don't .... "you ... get in the unfortunate situation of higher level combat simply taking longer", as you point out.  Which is why if you allow HP to advance (which I do, because I want to play the Heroic Fantasy version of D&D) Dmg should go up too.Your advancing skill in defending yourself is reflected in your HP, and your increasing skill at attacking is shown by the Dmg you can do.Although I agree that 4E is the first game where you can do this easily, the real reason (IMO) is because it's the first edition where all Thresholds (BAB, AC, Defenses and Skills) advanced along the same power curve.</blockquote>

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