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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Igwilly" data-source="post: 7215408" data-attributes="member: 6801225">[MENTION=22362]MoutonRustique[/MENTION]Well, there might be some hyperbole involved.Remember, though, that D&D has a *lot* of monsters. Even if only 10% of them have any one of these “special abilities”, that is still many monsters.My particular problem is recording it all. I have to note this somewhere, even if I do it as the game progresses.Also, there are some things one should be more careful: many of these mechanics can change the face of an encounter – and by extension, the game itself. Old-school petrifying gaze can sure change how some encounters are made. And I won’t even start about classic Energy Drain. So there are some things, I would be more careful.Well, to be fair, old-school energy drain isn’t one of my favorites, but it was really nasty ^^ [MENTION=82106]AbdulAlhazred[/MENTION]1)    AD&D had stuff like long-lasting paralyzing attacks, petrifying gaze, and all such things that you can find in low-level adventures. So, these stuff change other stuff.2)    Oh, there are so many ways one can make magic much more difficult… Aging effects in AD&D really make people scared of this stuff, for example. Even simply requiring: “Material component: a Gold Chocobo’s feather” make a particular spell much more difficult to cast. In addition, you may be underestimating some spells. Restoration was a 7th level (max) priest spell and even so very nasty. A wish could be gained through magical items, but that depends on the DM’s wish, and otherwise it’s a 9th level (max) wizard spell, and still risky. Some of them, however, are too easily accessible.3)    If the fear of your character being killed is “trivial”, then (at least in my opinion) there is something *very* wrong with the particular game. Again, in AD&D resurrecting the dead was much more difficult and involved permanent losses. These drawbacks were gradually eliminated from recent editions. Add to that the overall difficulty of encounters and you have “too safe” editions. However, I do think resurrecting the dead must have serious costs.4)    One thing doesn’t exclude another. There are monsters for surprise attacks and there are Bosses (big monsters you need to plan carefully). They are *not* the same monsters. Water weirds are for surprise attacks in the middle of the dungeon; the beholder is the boss at the end of the dungeon. Monsters in old-school D&D don’t have all the same roleBut, of course, if your character cares about nothing in the world, then there isn’t much challenge in the game.“So what if your character gets killed? You make another one!Your parents get killed? Well, that’s life.You cannot leave Feywild? Another character is the way to go!The world ended? We start another campaign or make a Deus ex Machina.”That’s a dangerous path to proceed.</blockquote>

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