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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5747425" data-attributes="member: 463">Yep.  I have come to love how 4e solves the 'RPGs are crappy physics engines' problem by gutting the bits of D&D that enabled it to be run as a physics engine.  Huge swathes of stuff are handed back to DM fiat.  For instance, if I want NPC wizards who can't cast battle magic, or who can't open mundane doors, 4e has no problem with that.   If I want NPC smiths who can forge magic weapons, but have minimal combat ability, 4e has no problem with that.  If I want noncombatant princess NPC to have 1 hp or 100 hp (whether for story or for sim reasons), 4e has no problem with that.  It's very liberating.Furthermore, when I do treat it as a physics engine, I tend to get reasonable results, or at least better than 1e-3e.  Take city guards - instead of hapless Ftr-0s and War-1s who'd be lucky to survive an angry housecat, get a MM/MV Soldier-3 who's statted in such a way he can actually do his job of fending off Skirmisher-2 common bandits, minion-1 goblin mooks, and in company even facing off against brute-6 ogres.  At the same time he clearly needs help from Paragon PCs against high level threats.  Or, conversely, take mid-Heroic Wizard (N)PCs - no longer can the Wiz-6 wave his hand and obliterate the city guard, making conventional armies pointless.  I used to see situations in 1e-3e where (N)PC parties around 10th level could, per RAW, use magic to literally destroy armies in the low thousands.  And the demographics data in 1e-3e made such NPC characters all too common.  Every random wilderness fortress in 1e had an NPC Lord of 9th+ level who could easily wipe out his own army (of a hundred or so) single-handed.  Fine for 'Way of the Exploding Fist', terrible for the default medievalesque paradigm.I can't imagine that (killing armies) in 4e until you're up into Epic tier, by which time it becomes a lot more thematically appropriate. That Elric + Stormbringer can kill an army doesn't bother me.</blockquote>

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