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Jonathan Tweet: Third Edition and Per-Day Spells
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<blockquote data-quote="Aaron L" data-source="post: 7930470" data-attributes="member: 926"><p>We always did (and still do) when playing 1st Edition campaigns. After a certain point the focus of demihuman adventuring shifted to seeking ways to acquire more <em>Wishes</em> in order to increase their ability scores, and the other PCs (and players) understood the situation and would allow us (usually <em>me </em>and my Elven PCs) to claim any <em>Wishes</em> we found as our share of treasure. </p><p></p><p>And even then, once the Demihuman characters reached their final hard limits on gaining class levels, their increased ability scores (usually in the low-to-mid 20s by that point) meant that the Demihuman PCs were still viable in combat even compared alongside their higher level Human colleagues. Plus, those players like me who just loved playing Elves or other Deminumans quickly learned to always include Thief in our multi-class combinations so as to always have one class that could advance without limit. A Grey Elven Fighter/Magic-User/Thief being restricted to only 11/18/U (with sufficiently <em>Wished</em>-up ability scores) may <em>sound </em>very limited when all the Human characters were up around 25th level, but the versatility of the characters, combined with the fact that their ability scores had been magically augmented up to 19 Strength and 22 Intelligence so as to reach absolute class level maximums, made up a lot of the difference. Also, once we reached our final level limits we would just continue to focus our adventuring goals on acquiring ever more <em>Wishes </em>so as to increase our ability scores even higher in lieu of gaining further levels, something which actually worked out quite well; in order to get more Hit Points we would keep <em>Wishing </em>for greater Constitution; for better attack bonuses we would <em>Wish </em>for ever greater Strength, etc. (Our DM even allowed a one-time, well-worded <em>Wish </em>to grant a small bonus to permanent maximum Hit Point totals; if I remember correctly the wording was something like for "greater stamina in combat.")</p><p></p><p>We played one campaign up to the point where the Human PCs rose to about 30th level, and even though my Grey Elven Fighter/Magic-User/Thief was indeed limited to "only" 11/18/28, I didn't feel left behind or overshadowed by the other PCs whatsoever, and in fact my PC was arguably the <em>most powerful</em> character in the party, being able to fight on nearly equal footing with the 29th level Paladin, dishing out <em>tremendous </em>amounts of damage with his 25 Strength... as well as being able to cast <em>Wish </em>all by himself and toss Meteor Swarms when needed. My PC may not have had as many Hit Points as the Human Paladin, nor as many high level spells per day as the Human Archmage, but my Grey Elf still <em>was</em> an Archmage and could cast 9th level spells... as well as also being a Warrior Lord with his own castle and troops, and <em>also</em> also a Master Thief with his own stronghold and his own Thieves Guild (he became a master of espionage for the forces of Light and Good.) My Grey Elf actually had more effect on the campaign world than any other PC due to the confluence of reach of his multiple avenues of influence. In fact, in later campaigns we played set on the same planet a millennium later he was still an incredibly powerful force, one of the main champions of Good in the world, because he was a Grey Elf with a 2,000 year lifespan.</p><p></p><p>As I said before, I much, much prefer my D&D game mechanics to be a <em>simulation </em>of the Fantasy/Pulp/Weird Fiction genre, without so much worry about <em>balance</em>, which is largely illusory anyway. Game "balance" is achieved through the DM focusing the spotlight on PCs, and if the most mechically powerful PC in the party doesn't get the spotlight then all of their supposed power is basically meaningless. The DM can take the mechanically weakest PC in a party and make him the most important simply by focusing campaign events around that PC. </p><p></p><p>Besides, game "balance" is basically about balancing mechanical potency in combat anyway, and if a significant proportion of a campaign is roleplaying rather than combat then all of that "balance" is essentially meaningless. I vastly prefer game mechanics that work to create a convincing simulation of genre atmosphere to those that twist themselves into knots trying to chase mythical ideas of "game balance." That is the reason why I hated 4th Edition so much; it was perfectly "balanced" by making the game feel completely like... well, like a <em>game</em>, at the expense of not feeling <em>at all</em> like inhabiting a pulp adventure story, which is what I want from D&D.</p><p></p><p>And that's why I love D&D 5th Edition so much; the mechanics genuinely create an atmosphere that really feels like inhabiting a Conan- or even Elric-style Pulp Fantasy/Adventure/Weird Fiction story. And that is a spectacular accomplishment!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aaron L, post: 7930470, member: 926"] We always did (and still do) when playing 1st Edition campaigns. After a certain point the focus of demihuman adventuring shifted to seeking ways to acquire more [I]Wishes[/I] in order to increase their ability scores, and the other PCs (and players) understood the situation and would allow us (usually [I]me [/I]and my Elven PCs) to claim any [I]Wishes[/I] we found as our share of treasure. And even then, once the Demihuman characters reached their final hard limits on gaining class levels, their increased ability scores (usually in the low-to-mid 20s by that point) meant that the Demihuman PCs were still viable in combat even compared alongside their higher level Human colleagues. Plus, those players like me who just loved playing Elves or other Deminumans quickly learned to always include Thief in our multi-class combinations so as to always have one class that could advance without limit. A Grey Elven Fighter/Magic-User/Thief being restricted to only 11/18/U (with sufficiently [I]Wished[/I]-up ability scores) may [I]sound [/I]very limited when all the Human characters were up around 25th level, but the versatility of the characters, combined with the fact that their ability scores had been magically augmented up to 19 Strength and 22 Intelligence so as to reach absolute class level maximums, made up a lot of the difference. Also, once we reached our final level limits we would just continue to focus our adventuring goals on acquiring ever more [I]Wishes [/I]so as to increase our ability scores even higher in lieu of gaining further levels, something which actually worked out quite well; in order to get more Hit Points we would keep [I]Wishing [/I]for greater Constitution; for better attack bonuses we would [I]Wish [/I]for ever greater Strength, etc. (Our DM even allowed a one-time, well-worded [I]Wish [/I]to grant a small bonus to permanent maximum Hit Point totals; if I remember correctly the wording was something like for "greater stamina in combat.") We played one campaign up to the point where the Human PCs rose to about 30th level, and even though my Grey Elven Fighter/Magic-User/Thief was indeed limited to "only" 11/18/28, I didn't feel left behind or overshadowed by the other PCs whatsoever, and in fact my PC was arguably the [I]most powerful[/I] character in the party, being able to fight on nearly equal footing with the 29th level Paladin, dishing out [I]tremendous [/I]amounts of damage with his 25 Strength... as well as being able to cast [I]Wish [/I]all by himself and toss Meteor Swarms when needed. My PC may not have had as many Hit Points as the Human Paladin, nor as many high level spells per day as the Human Archmage, but my Grey Elf still [I]was[/I] an Archmage and could cast 9th level spells... as well as also being a Warrior Lord with his own castle and troops, and [I]also[/I] also a Master Thief with his own stronghold and his own Thieves Guild (he became a master of espionage for the forces of Light and Good.) My Grey Elf actually had more effect on the campaign world than any other PC due to the confluence of reach of his multiple avenues of influence. In fact, in later campaigns we played set on the same planet a millennium later he was still an incredibly powerful force, one of the main champions of Good in the world, because he was a Grey Elf with a 2,000 year lifespan. As I said before, I much, much prefer my D&D game mechanics to be a [I]simulation [/I]of the Fantasy/Pulp/Weird Fiction genre, without so much worry about [I]balance[/I], which is largely illusory anyway. Game "balance" is achieved through the DM focusing the spotlight on PCs, and if the most mechically powerful PC in the party doesn't get the spotlight then all of their supposed power is basically meaningless. The DM can take the mechanically weakest PC in a party and make him the most important simply by focusing campaign events around that PC. Besides, game "balance" is basically about balancing mechanical potency in combat anyway, and if a significant proportion of a campaign is roleplaying rather than combat then all of that "balance" is essentially meaningless. I vastly prefer game mechanics that work to create a convincing simulation of genre atmosphere to those that twist themselves into knots trying to chase mythical ideas of "game balance." That is the reason why I hated 4th Edition so much; it was perfectly "balanced" by making the game feel completely like... well, like a [I]game[/I], at the expense of not feeling [I]at all[/I] like inhabiting a pulp adventure story, which is what I want from D&D. And that's why I love D&D 5th Edition so much; the mechanics genuinely create an atmosphere that really feels like inhabiting a Conan- or even Elric-style Pulp Fantasy/Adventure/Weird Fiction story. And that is a spectacular accomplishment! [/QUOTE]
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