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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Petrosian" data-source="post: 496644" data-attributes="member: 1149">First, IMO, the design elements in DND which do make teams integral to the play show good results. At its core DND is designed for a PARTY of heroes working together against evil. While solo campaigns, like we see with heroic fantasy where we have one hero and 'the rest", can be done the GM will need to make adjustments, some perhaps serious, to the rules or to the setting to accomodate these goals. The DND rules were, it seems obviously to me, designed to reward and encourage small teams with each character bringing different attributes to the mix.This seems ideal for a GAME based fantasy setting and ruleset. Its less often seen in heroic fantasy or fantasy novels because in a novel the ability to develop fully more core characters is limited.As for useless fighters, well, ask yourself this... what would conan do against a flying invisible dragon who could throw fireballs from beyond effective bow range if encountered on a flat open field?The answer would be... makes for a lousy story.Conan has a writer who puts him into situations which highlight his strengths, which sometimes exemplify his weaknesses, and always makes for dramtic and enjoyable use of his talents.In a RPG, that writer is the GM. it is the Gm's job to provide challenges and scenes and adventures that make the session enjoyable and entertaining. This means for everyone. If he has set up a scenario where the fighter are indeed that useless then he should really rethink that scenario design. As an occasional thing, designed to highlight the flaw or better yet, to introduce a puzzle the PCs must figure out how to crack, then it should be Ok but rare.The GM decides how frequently your gang gets pressed into a series of severe combats. The GM decides how many of your enemies have SR. Your GM decides how many of your enemies have ACs high enough that only really tough fighters can get to it. Your Gm decides how many of your fights take place inside of some sort of wind wall like effect that blocks or deflects or degrades arrow fire. If your characters are useless, the first place i look is to the character/player and how well or poorly the design is to be a contributibg member and how well they thought through their options. The second thing i look at is the Gm and his scenarios and see if they provide the source of the "problem." Then, and only then, do i look at rules.You would definitely IMO need to make some changes to change the DND 3e into a primarily one-on-one game. In addition to archery, i would suggest looking at the saves, making fighters and other classes more capable of shrugging off magic, since they wont have dispel capable friends. The entire HP system will need some serious overhaul since it pretty much relies on magical healing in droves (perhaps instead of represeting "higher level" and "combat skill" by more or bigger HD you make it a defense bonus since a "more experienced guy took fewer hits" means less dependence on healing) and so on.i would probably have looked at the others first, the archery thing not being that huge by comparison for me, but then, i prefer a team game.For addressing my balance concerns on archery, i am looking two changes. First is changing rapid shot to -5 to-hit adjustment and adding an "improved rapid shot" which brings it down to -2. This makes it two feats just like TWF requires. Second is changing the bow/arrow enhancements so that bows provide a plus to hit and arrows provide a plus to damage.More sweeping changes to GMW, the pricing of magic weapons, and so on are not archery specific, but would have some impact.</blockquote>

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