Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 5848887" data-attributes="member: 53980">There are options for martial improvement that don't involve increasing your ability to hit. While it won't be DDN, as they've already said that characters scale modestly, I can imagine a system where attack and defense are static and never change. You add the same number to your 1d20 roll at level 1 as you do at level 20. However, that doesn't at all preclude improvement. The fighter can still gain bonuses to damage, and increase his hit points. Even though his accuracy doesn't improve, at level 20 he might hit like a freight train when compared to level 1. There are other options as well. Bonus attacks (which I don't particularly care for) are one. The fighter might also become better at general combat maneuvers (assuming they exist). For example, assume that anyone in DDN can charge, but most suffer a penalty to AC for doing so. Perhaps the no frills fighter negates that penalty over time, and even gains other bonuses to charging (additional movement or whatever). Another possibility is that he might negate penalties for wearing armor. There are numerous passive bonuses that are perfect for a &quot;simple&quot; fighter.The point is, there are a quite a number of options for increasing even a simple fighter's capabilities without utilizing attack roll bloat. Attack bloat is not a good mechanic in my opinion. Either defenses scale with attack (rendering improvements relatively meaningless when fighting opponents of your level) or they don't and your attack bonus quickly exits the &quot;sweet spot&quot;. (In case you're unfamiliar, studies have shown that a success rate somewhere around 70% typically results in the greatest amount of enjoyment, without the player becoming bored due to excessive ease or frustrated due to excessive difficulty.) As such, neither is a great option (though, IMO, the scaling is preferable to wonky math).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 5848887, member: 53980"] There are options for martial improvement that don't involve increasing your ability to hit. While it won't be DDN, as they've already said that characters scale modestly, I can imagine a system where attack and defense are static and never change. You add the same number to your 1d20 roll at level 1 as you do at level 20. However, that doesn't at all preclude improvement. The fighter can still gain bonuses to damage, and increase his hit points. Even though his accuracy doesn't improve, at level 20 he might hit like a freight train when compared to level 1. There are other options as well. Bonus attacks (which I don't particularly care for) are one. The fighter might also become better at general combat maneuvers (assuming they exist). For example, assume that anyone in DDN can charge, but most suffer a penalty to AC for doing so. Perhaps the no frills fighter negates that penalty over time, and even gains other bonuses to charging (additional movement or whatever). Another possibility is that he might negate penalties for wearing armor. There are numerous passive bonuses that are perfect for a "simple" fighter. The point is, there are a quite a number of options for increasing even a simple fighter's capabilities without utilizing attack roll bloat. Attack bloat is not a good mechanic in my opinion. Either defenses scale with attack (rendering improvements relatively meaningless when fighting opponents of your level) or they don't and your attack bonus quickly exits the "sweet spot". (In case you're unfamiliar, studies have shown that a success rate somewhere around 70% typically results in the greatest amount of enjoyment, without the player becoming bored due to excessive ease or frustrated due to excessive difficulty.) As such, neither is a great option (though, IMO, the scaling is preferable to wonky math). [/QUOTE]

Verification