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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5787032" data-attributes="member: 3400">There are a few things I can think of that drive up some of the deadliness of 3e:1) critical hits - there were no official crits in previous editions2) strength bonus for many monsters - not in previous editions, plus large creatures get an extra bonus to drive their strengths up3) iterative attacks come all at once - in 1e/2e AD&amp;D, you alternated between characters with iterative attacks, in 3e, you take them all on your turn, for high level characters, this can be quite a spike of damage that cannot be answered4) saving throw DCs can be driven quite high - save or die/sit spells generally more dangerous than they were in 1e/2e (where saving throw targets numbers could never get completely out of reach)A little bit more on #3 above - creatures with multiple natural attacks didn't have to alternate with other characters with iterative attacks. They could always make all of their attacks at once, but check out #2.Pathfinder has significantly worked on making many save or die effects a bit less nasty or gradual (check out petrification effects in the Bestiary for the cockatrice and basilisk). So it's not quite as deadly as 3e could be.EDIT: And because I can't resist chiming in with more, the most common way I've killed (or nearly killed) a PC has been because of #1 - critical hits. Got 2 in one session - scythe crit (x4 crit damage) and battleaxe crit (x3 damage).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="billd91, post: 5787032, member: 3400"] There are a few things I can think of that drive up some of the deadliness of 3e: 1) critical hits - there were no official crits in previous editions 2) strength bonus for [b]many[/b] monsters - not in previous editions, plus large creatures get an extra bonus to drive their strengths up 3) iterative attacks come all at once - in 1e/2e AD&D, you alternated between characters with iterative attacks, in 3e, you take them all on your turn, for high level characters, this can be quite a spike of damage that cannot be answered 4) saving throw DCs can be driven quite high - save or die/sit spells generally more dangerous than they were in 1e/2e (where saving throw targets numbers could never get completely out of reach) A little bit more on #3 above - creatures with multiple natural attacks didn't have to alternate with other characters with iterative attacks. They could always make all of their attacks at once, but check out #2. Pathfinder has significantly worked on making many save or die effects a bit less nasty or gradual (check out petrification effects in the Bestiary for the cockatrice and basilisk). So it's not quite as deadly as 3e could be. EDIT: And because I can't resist chiming in with more, the most common way I've killed (or nearly killed) a PC has been because of #1 - critical hits. Got 2 in one session - scythe crit (x4 crit damage) and battleaxe crit (x3 damage). [/QUOTE]

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