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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5749371" data-attributes="member: 2067">I really don't mind there being hundreds of little conditional rules for me to use if I need them. Of course, there are useful rules and less useful rules, well-designed rules and less well-designed rules, rules that add to the fun, and rules that detract from the fun. The item damage rules in 3e (<a href="http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/glossary.aspx?id=389" target="_blank">and 4e</a> <- DDI Link) fall mostly under the "too detailed to be effective" bucket of rules. Of course, the crux of the matter is, "if I need them." There being item hit points in 3e and 4e doesn't mean I can't just say that the fighter's axe breaks the door down in two hits, or that if you try to hit the goblin's mace, you'd probably disarm him before you broke it. And in 4e the only thing stopping me from disarming the goblin is that I can't disarm if I don't have that power. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The item HP rules, while they're not great rules on their own, are a pretty great example of a good silo. If I want those rules, I can use them. If I don't want those rules, I never have to interact with them. An example of a bad silo, for instance, might be the 3e poison rules, where ability damage had a multitude of cascading effects that made me interact with rules I would have never touched were it not for the poison. Or the 3e grapple rules, which, despite being pretty complex, came up whenever a critter with a tentacle or a big mouth got involved in combat. Detailed little rules-corners don't take anything from those who prefer to run with more DM judgement calls, as long as they are self-contained. Item HP is a good example, because I don't have to use that rule at all, but those who want to use the rule to determine with more precision how long it takes to hack down that door have it.</blockquote>

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