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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thasmodious" data-source="post: 4701516" data-attributes="member: 63272">The math has always been there if you hung out around math types.  You just didn't have as pervasive and internet culture, especially before the Internet was invented...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The designers have always been aware of it.  It hasn't always been consistent and balanced throughout the system, but everything mechanical comes down to a set of mathematical assumptions.  In older versions it was a certain scaling hit rate against AC 0 by level as a means of expressing a progression in power.  It was encumbrance, and distance, and scales of values (the AC scale, saving throw scales, thief skill scales).3e was the first edition to really publish the math behind the system.  Instead of just printing results tables, they showed their work, so DMs could put that extra knowledge to use, so players could as well.  Feats skewed the baseline in predictable ways and the effectiveness of different feat options could be analyzed easily, if one so desired.  There is a ton of mathematical analysis of practically everything 3rd edition all over the interwebs, much of it on the CO boards.  You can find the same level of analysis for practically everything in 1e as well (or any other edition).  When I was a high school kid, mathematical arguements often broke out in game - "but ignoring acceleration from a stand still in movement rates isn't realistic, and it would be simple to model acceleration!  I just can't accept that my higher dex shouldn't let me reach the bridge first!"  "I don't accept that dex would be the sole determination for speed of acceleration..."  "Yeah, well, that's not what your mom said..."Now, such discussion is where it should be, on internet forums, away from the game.  But I've read and done analysis of power attack versus improved critical for a high damage concept, the value of emphasizing hit rate versus total damage, basically anything where you are analysing the value of a trade-off.  Are the extra hit points from Con more valuable than the extra AC from dex? (in 3e the answer is a solid yes)</blockquote>

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