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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 6066220" data-attributes="member: 63">Then again, Wizards seems to want D&amp;DN to be quick to play, old school style, with simple rules. In which case, eh, sure, it's just hit points. No conditions, no tripping, just hit points, because that's simple.I don't personally see that as an enticing game design aesthetic. By contrast, I say make combat less fiddly by having overarching rules for all the weird stuff PCs and monsters do, then explicitly encourage them to do those weird things. Don't have a special ability that says &quot;once per encounter you can attack two guys, and if you hit them both you deal extra damage and knock them prone.&quot; Just have rules for attacking multiple people, rules for how much damage a cool trick should do, and rules to adjudicate how easy it should be to apply conditions.I don't think it's necessary to give every dragon its own suite of special moves like&nbsp; &quot;bite and clamp,&quot; &quot;buffet away with wind,&quot; or &quot;bite, set on fire, then spit at another PC.&quot; Just a) make those sorts of maneuvers easy to adjudicate, b) have sample maneuvers in the Monster Manual, and c) explicitly call out common maneuvers for dragons to use in the dragon entry.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 6066220, member: 63"] Then again, Wizards seems to want D&DN to be quick to play, old school style, with simple rules. In which case, eh, sure, it's just hit points. No conditions, no tripping, just hit points, because that's simple. I don't personally see that as an enticing game design aesthetic. By contrast, I say make combat less fiddly by having overarching rules for all the weird stuff PCs and monsters do, then explicitly encourage them to do those weird things. Don't have a special ability that says "once per encounter you can attack two guys, and if you hit them both you deal extra damage and knock them prone." Just have rules for attacking multiple people, rules for how much damage a cool trick should do, and rules to adjudicate how easy it should be to apply conditions. I don't think it's necessary to give every dragon its own suite of special moves like "bite and clamp," "buffet away with wind," or "bite, set on fire, then spit at another PC." Just a) make those sorts of maneuvers easy to adjudicate, b) have sample maneuvers in the Monster Manual, and c) explicitly call out common maneuvers for dragons to use in the dragon entry. [/QUOTE]

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