Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5726036" data-attributes="member: 54877">Well, it isn't as if we have never had options. Whether an option works well or not depends on the medium and what goes around it. Take switching weapons by characters. If we are talking metal miniatures, then making the weapons easily switchable probably results in a miniature that doesn't look as nice. If we make them nicer, then it takes more skill to pull the switch. So we go more abstract and use Lego figures. Fine, if you want switchable weapons--not so hot if you want a painted, realistic looking mini. But for characters, we expect to be able to switch weapons, possibly within some limits, but still. I think part of the problem with D&D historically (all editions) has been "rounding off" the joint in a bad place. It as if we made Lego miniatures with changeable hands. Every weapons comes with a hand attached permanently, and you can pull any figures hand out and replace it with another one. If there is some good technical reason why you need to do it that way, maybe--but it does create some odd side effects. (If I want my figure to have an empty hand, I have to buy an empty hand separately.) For a more concrete example, take "tripping". Prior to 3E, it was done more or less ad hoc (perhaps with a few monster notes that implied it--not sure). 3E makes this mainly about the character, even allowing feats. 4E makes this completely abstract. But is there any reason why better or worse tripping can't be mainly a function of weapons, plus whatever normal skill a character has? That is, a Fighter 10 probably trips better than a Fighter 1, through normal attack bonuses. And it is a lot easier to trip with a polearm than a shortsword or empty hand. How many effects are like that? If there are several, maybe "attaching" those things to weapons is a good option. If you don't want them attached, simply use the ad hoc method. A certain amount of "rounding off" in odd places is necessary for a smooth, elegant game.  But I think D&D designs have made some less than optimal trades in this regard.</blockquote>

Verification