So if the DM says I have a rule whereby you roll the dice and if you get the lowest roll, you suck...that's okay? Because essentially that's what the No Dex rule says.
Yea its ok...because the NPCs will fail too, and I won't fail more because I of my class.
That's not true. The Ready action gives you the same option to flank...you just have identify the situation which triggers your flanking action.
Its not the same. Its weaker. You need to have the power to see the future to say they are the same. If the orcs play first than the fighter no kind of ready action can give you a flank. Except if you can predict where the orc will move, so you will move next to where it will move and then ready for having the fighter also moving where you predicted. Sorry, but...it just doesn't work.
If you act first...you kill first and avoid retaliation. If you act last, you can die first...but you may be in a better position to retaliate. It's a trade off.
Its not a balanced trade off. I already did my part of the trade when I was putting an above 10 DEX score and I was giving that 10 to my STR, crippling myself forever.
First off, I'm talking about moderate imbalance, not cosmic. If spellcaster can't be killed, what would be the point of them playing with other adventurers. So your house rule has made all other characters obsolete. The other classes no longer serve a purpose. Gross imbalances in classes or in the rules can make other classes unnecessary. But in a PnP game, the adventures are supposed to be tailored to the party, so minor differences...like damage dealt by TWF first S&B...are minimized if even noticable. The problem arises in video games where stats are easily maintained and the majority of advancement comes from straight combat. In PnP, perfect, or even decent balance between classes is not mandatory. Purpose...is always mandatory.
I don't know what S&B is. The cosmic imbalance was an extreme example. My point was, that you can't say its ok to nerf that rogue, because other things are imbalanced too.
Which is the WotC explicitly saying we're not going to give you something for free. If you want to take advantage of a tactical situation...while retaining your other beneifts, there's a cost.
You just say that Ready action can do the same thing, but cheaper, if you metagame good. Then you say they had that planned, because they wanted you to pay. But why would they make you pay for not metagaming?
The FF rule. Because that is what you're complaining about. You don't want to be caught FF'd. But you want to be able to act last with a Full Actoin. In the first round, those two are mutually exclusive. Why wouldn't WotC want to preserve the impact of the FF rule in the first round? Leting high dex characters not only avoid being FF and simultaneously get the full benefit of acting last...was something they obviously didn't want to allow. Kind of like making Rangers lose 1d8 of hit points at first level...then charging them for TWF...forcing them to wear light armore to get benefits...and a host of other things they did to the class. It's their art. They think the game is better because of it.
Are you trying to prove that the FF rule is crap, by making other rules to make you flat footed? And you call me biased?
Why they obviously wouldn't want that, when if the rules are the way I read them, they actually allow that? Giving examples of other rules you don't like doesn't prove much to me...
The may allow the same tactical outcomes...but that is coincidental. Remember, the Ready action allows you to "interrupt" someone elses actions. a Ready can stop a spellcaster from casting. You can't do that with Delay. They are designed for two different goals...even though there is overlap in how they can be used.
So, now that you proved that those two are different....why Delay should have a penalty? Its different enough to assume that it can't be ''better'' than Ready Action. And if its not ''better'' than Ready Action, but just different, why should there be a penalty, in comparison with the Ready Action that has no penalty?
If your'e asking why shouldn't Delay be the same benefit regardless....I don't have an answer. I still haven't seen an explanation why no Dex Bonus is better for the game the way it works now. I mean, the game could have said you roll for Init every round. The game could have said every round, you start FF because you don't know what's going to happen next. <shrug>
I think there is a variant where you roll initiative every round, but I don't think anyone would ever use it....even though it would greatly benefit the rogues, and would make the game more tactical.
John is probably metagaming all over the place and just being arbitrary about what metagaming is acceptable and what is not. Is it in-character for a Fighter in the party to not recognize the benefit of helping his teammate flank? Deciding not to metagame and
specifically picking a target you can't flank as a result....is metagaming.
You are right...but you can't force an other player to do something.
You are stuck with asking for help from John...when you could delay and instead offer help (and get the kill too).
Except that every credible statistical analysis I have seen involving TWF in a pure ranger shows it's weaker than any other combat oriented option. You can certainly create extreme cases where it holds its one...but Feat for Feat...it's weaker than S&B and THF. So you stick Rangers with a Combat style that does weaker damage on average and lowers their AC by as much as half a dozen against traditional S&B. Wait...why were Rangers even given TWF to begin with? Is Legolas is more representative of the class than Aragorn? Whatever.
Don't get me wrong, but I don't think this thread is about rangers and I don't know what THF is either.
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Bout your second post.
Good try, but like you point out for the last pages when your turn is, is what defines when you are flat footed.
The argument is that your regular turn is when you decide to Delay, and not when you decide to play...because you had an option to act then.
Now if you say that you can have an immediate action just when you delay...hell you are right. This means that you aren't flat footed any more, even when with your understanding of the rules.
Anyway one last question. Why you consider regular, the delayed initiative order, and not the original one? I mean, regular implies something normal, not a tricky option that is available and you may or may not use...?
