Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How is the Wizard vs Warrior Balance Problem Handled in Fantasy Literature?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5513861" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>I think this is a good idea. Doesn't Paranoia have something like this where your mutant powers (or whatever it's called, it's been a REALLY long time since I played Paranoia) have a chance of doing very bad things?</p><p></p><p>The problem with this sort of thing though is the same as having critical hits in an RPG. The NPC's don't suffer any of the consequences by and large. Sure, an individual bad guy might die that much quicker to a crit, but, he was really supposed to die anyway, it just happend on round X instead of round Y.</p><p></p><p>But, eventually, the bad guys are going to crit the PC's and suddenly the PC goes from full health to dead through no real fault of his own. It's a bit ... anticlimactic.</p><p></p><p>The same sort of thing could apply here. The NPC's can blast away with spells all day long, because the odds of this particular NPC suffering some sort of backlash are so small. The PC's, OTOH, will pretty much always suffer the backlash.</p><p></p><p>It's tricky.</p><p></p><p>------------</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Umm, doing a skill challenge is "playing it out" actually. I know that you insist on a strict, by the book, the DM has had half his brains scooped out interpretation of skill challenges, but, really, that's not how they work. But, you're also missing the point. In earlier editions, I'd simply turn to the cleric and cast Detect Evil and the problem is solved. I don't have to engage in the setting in any way, shape or form.</p><p></p><p>But, I have a feeling that you're also playing silly buggers with the idea of "I win". "I win" doesn't have to be 100% success 100% of the time. It's simply an easy shorthand way of saying I can gain a measure of success without any effort on my part.</p><p></p><p>Want to find the murder weapon? Locate Object. King wants to know who the murderer is? ESP, Mind Reading, Zone of Truth etc. </p><p></p><p>Sure, real world and fiction based on the real world, this wouldn't work. But, unlike the world of the Three Musketeers, when a cleric steps out of line, he stops being a cleric. His god stops giving him spells. A LG cleric has a code of conduct just as strict as a paladin's. Lie to the king to protect a murderer? Good luck getting that past Pelor or Heironeous.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5513861, member: 22779"] I think this is a good idea. Doesn't Paranoia have something like this where your mutant powers (or whatever it's called, it's been a REALLY long time since I played Paranoia) have a chance of doing very bad things? The problem with this sort of thing though is the same as having critical hits in an RPG. The NPC's don't suffer any of the consequences by and large. Sure, an individual bad guy might die that much quicker to a crit, but, he was really supposed to die anyway, it just happend on round X instead of round Y. But, eventually, the bad guys are going to crit the PC's and suddenly the PC goes from full health to dead through no real fault of his own. It's a bit ... anticlimactic. The same sort of thing could apply here. The NPC's can blast away with spells all day long, because the odds of this particular NPC suffering some sort of backlash are so small. The PC's, OTOH, will pretty much always suffer the backlash. It's tricky. ------------ Umm, doing a skill challenge is "playing it out" actually. I know that you insist on a strict, by the book, the DM has had half his brains scooped out interpretation of skill challenges, but, really, that's not how they work. But, you're also missing the point. In earlier editions, I'd simply turn to the cleric and cast Detect Evil and the problem is solved. I don't have to engage in the setting in any way, shape or form. But, I have a feeling that you're also playing silly buggers with the idea of "I win". "I win" doesn't have to be 100% success 100% of the time. It's simply an easy shorthand way of saying I can gain a measure of success without any effort on my part. Want to find the murder weapon? Locate Object. King wants to know who the murderer is? ESP, Mind Reading, Zone of Truth etc. Sure, real world and fiction based on the real world, this wouldn't work. But, unlike the world of the Three Musketeers, when a cleric steps out of line, he stops being a cleric. His god stops giving him spells. A LG cleric has a code of conduct just as strict as a paladin's. Lie to the king to protect a murderer? Good luck getting that past Pelor or Heironeous. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How is the Wizard vs Warrior Balance Problem Handled in Fantasy Literature?
Top