Mearls on Balance in D&D

[hong]

Indeed. Incredible.

Oh come on, it was funny.

 

[satori01]

Given that Mike used to post rather frequently on the boards, you would think people would not be so hateful. Perhaps when Ari gets a permanent job w/ WOTC...well will see if the board turns on him as well...

I like Mearls design ethic. Mystic Secrets for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved is imho a perfect blend of flavor and mechanics. I have also like the books he has worked on @ WOTC and I have liked the mechanics of his monster updates. Mike has a good sense of 3.5 and design mechanics, his mechanics flow and make sense.

It is a bold experiment, giants are extremely dangerous foes in 3.5 High Str + Power Attack means death to PC. I find it interesting that the buffed up melee surrogates are the challenges the DM is focusing on.

 

[FunkBGR]

Should point out it's a *lunchtime game* also -

He stated in the first article that it's pretty much just a hack-fest, since they only have a half-hour to hour for lunch. Judging from reading the guy's other stuff, his normal campaigns aren't like this, but I'm happy he posts these, because I think it really shows that the game is fun for multiple reasons - whether your group is heavy into intrigue, or just wants PHAT LEWT.

If I were playing in a lunch-game, I would treat it as a stress-relief, killing stuff and taking their treasures!

 

[mmu1]

Lots of stuff by Mike Mearls - in fact, by many of the people working at WotC - makes me cringe. It does not, however, surprise me.

I used to think that the key requirement for being a Professional RPG Writer was a rock-solid understanding of gaming systems, but it isn't. (I still think that maybe it should be, but realize that if it was, we'd see two books published a year, if that. It certainly should be the requirement for any RPG editor, but that's another issue.) It's pretty obvious it's mainly about being creative, being able to write, and being able to do so on a schedule.

It'd be nice to see someone able to do that and have a good head for the rules, but it just doesn't happen very often...

 

[Janx]

Wasn't his point that the evil bard would have magic items primarily of use to the party's good bard (who needed a power boost)?

You may be assuming that the good bard faces the evil bard alone, and that the party doesn't try to help, and thus help themselves to a share of the treasure. Once the treasure is split, bard-centric items may be sold off for better gear. Plus, barring any homebrew items, any bard-centric gear isn't going to augment combat ability, so to pump up a bard takes basic magic gear. Stuff with bonuses to AC, attack, damage, and spell casting.

 

[Azgulor]

Your solution to the over-powering influence of magic in the game is to punish the fighter?

Actually, my solution is to play an OGL game rather than stock D&D. However, if I was forced to play D&D, I fail to see how making magic items difficult for all characters to obtain "punishes" the fighter. For every fireball a wizard hurls, there's a power-attacking fighter that's gonna rip the wizard a new one because he doesn't have magic items boosting his AC.

Also, I'd only run D&D's spell-slot system if I had to. I'd much rather use True Sorcery, Grim Tales, Thieves World, or Elements of Magic.

Azgulor

 

[hong]

Actually, my solution is to play an OGL game rather than stock D&D. However, if I was forced to play D&D, I fail to see how making magic items difficult for all characters to obtain "punishes" the fighter. For every fireball a wizard hurls, there's a power-attacking fighter that's gonna rip the wizard a new one because he doesn't have magic items boosting his AC.

Mage armor + shield + displacement....

 

[Plane Sailing]

As was pointed out, looking for secret doors was a bit different. OTOH, our groups said, "We search for secret doors" and everyone picked up a D6 and rolled. 1 in 6 for most of us, 3 in 6 for the elf IIRC.

YMMV of course.

Sorry, I thought you were interested in how we handled it, in our pre AD&D games (and to a large extent afterwards too)

I happened to pick a secret door example, I could equally have done searching for traps as well - I still remember one situation where we the party searched for and found a trap trigger, although we couldn't work out what it did. So in typical party fashion we decided to trigger it anyway to see what would happen

Cheers

 

[WhatGravitas]

For every fireball a wizard hurls, there's a power-attacking fighter that's gonna rip the wizard a new one because he doesn't have magic items boosting his AC.

Nah. First, it's not about PC-vs-PC combat. The monsters are the problem, because they've got damage reduction, regeneration, and... well spell-like abilities. Without magic stuff, the fighter cannot keep up with the vastly increasing array of monster abilities/defenses.
Second, what hong said.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

First, I'd point out that the KotB review in question was written eight years ago.

There's an important fact not touched upon by the Mearls detractors.

Anyway, I hope Mearls has a lot to do with any revamp or new edition of D&D.