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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 4674778" data-attributes="member: 32740">That's not a bug - it's a feature.&nbsp; Seriously.&nbsp;Consider that it was written with regard to players converting from 1E which used combat tables.&nbsp; Very few people were actually confused by THACO because it was a simplified expression of the combat tables of 1E.&nbsp; It only looks more confusing in hindsight and to players who never had to deal with even MORE confusing combat rules.Well, no rules for tripping specifically but non-lethal combat (wrestling, overbearing) was covered.&nbsp; The rules sucked as they do in any edition but they're there.&nbsp;The unwritten assumption carried forth from previous editions is that this was something for the DM to decide, not for the rules to restrict him to.&nbsp;Not entirely untrue but not entirely fair either to cite as a specific shortcoming.&nbsp; The entire system at the time just wasn't intended or even capable of that so it's a bit like saying they should be faulted for not selling fruit - AND they should be faulted for not selling apples.&nbsp;Again, the mindset of the time would be that this was something for the DM to decide and experiment with, not for the rules to dictate to him.Now THIS was one of my own longstanding personal peeves - the lack of a functional magic item creation system.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 4674778, member: 32740"] That's not a bug - it's a feature. Seriously. Consider that it was written with regard to players converting from 1E which used combat tables. Very few people were actually confused by THACO because it was a simplified expression of the combat tables of 1E. It only looks more confusing in hindsight and to players who never had to deal with even MORE confusing combat rules. Well, no rules for tripping specifically but non-lethal combat (wrestling, overbearing) was covered. The rules sucked as they do in any edition but they're there. The unwritten assumption carried forth from previous editions is that this was something for the DM to decide, not for the rules to restrict him to. Not entirely untrue but not entirely fair either to cite as a specific shortcoming. The entire system at the time just wasn't intended or even capable of that so it's a bit like saying they should be faulted for not selling fruit - AND they should be faulted for not selling apples. Again, the mindset of the time would be that this was something for the DM to decide and experiment with, not for the rules to dictate to him. Now THIS was one of my own longstanding personal peeves - the lack of a [I]functional[/I] magic item creation system. [/QUOTE]

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