Mearls talks about how he hates resistances

[Mercule]

One thing I'd meant to add in my previous post is a comment on epic levels, outsiders, and resistences:

I really don't understand why 4e epic foes have lots of arbitrary resistences. Yes, it makes sense that demons are going to be generally harder to harm with elements than, say orcs. And a baseline resistence to most everything made sense in earlier editions where damage scaled in an absolute manner. But, 4e "fixed the math", in part, by scaling relatively. That's why we have minions -- they're just shorthand for critters playing out of their league.

By the time a group reaches epic level, almost everything that isn't a minion (and some things that are) are going to be somewhat resistent to most energy forms, anyway. It should just be assumed to be part of the math. Only include the resistences if they are in someway noteworthy among their peers.

That assumption might also reduce the "grind" factor that seems to be happening in 4e, too.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Seriously, just once I'd like someone to use rain forests in their example of heat-based monsters, spells or whatever.

I'm aware that deserts are cold at night, but many associate lack of moisture with dryness which means fire.

The area around where I live in the so-called Pacific Northwest of British Columbia and Washington is considered a rain forest as a natural environment, albeit a Temperate rain forest. So I wouldn't necessarily associate rain forest with fire, since there's certainly the non-tropical varieties.

 

[DaveyJones]

I'm aware that deserts are cold at night, but many associate lack of moisture with dryness which means fire.

some deserts are not just cold at night. look up the gobi desert.

 

[deleteme123456]

I don't use resistances whatsoever.

I add the resistance to Defense values whenever an enemy attempts to use a Power with that specific keyword against the foe.

So resist 10 is almost the same as immune then, and resist 15 effectively is, since there are very few builds that reliably hit on a 5, and even if they could, they now need a 20.

 

[Obryn]

some deserts are not just cold at night. look up the gobi desert.

...and technically Antarctica is a big desert, too. We're not talking reality, though; we're talking tropes.

-O

 

[Mark]

Is this 4E UA fodder (or even water-testing for the secret 4.5E that has adamantly been denied)?

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

So resist 10 is almost the same as immune then, and resist 15 effectively is, since there are very few builds that reliably hit on a 5, and even if they could, they now need a 20.

Precisely; I like the old immunities.

 

[DaveyJones]

Is this 4E UA fodder (or even water-testing for the secret 4.5E that has adamantly been denied)?

that's not canon.

lake geneva convention common article 3 will be a parka, sir.

edit: no frozen water aka snow boarding involved

 

[xechnao]

Simplifying is tougher because it forces you to make changes that are risky. It's hard to simplify an existing system while keeping its foundation. You usually have to junk that foundation and build something new, even if that something is largely based on the old foundation's intent.

Yet, once you have that new foundation, you might find that you can never really understand what you saw in the original in the first place.

mearls I would love to see an indy of yours (not necessarily indy by the forge's standards but at least something not D20)

excuse me for the tangent but I wanted to say this to mike mearls.

 

[Derren]

I had a nasty experience in Red Hand of Doom when one PC's hard core fire mage (fire genasi evoker with all the fire feats possible) was helpless against red dragons. So here's my solution for the themed wizard problem.

Or a even better idea, you do nothing and let the player deal with this situation. After all the character did voluntarily put all "eggs in one basket".
That certainly makes for a much better character development than "My fire mage burns everything"

And I agree that it makes much, much more sense to have fire mages in the artic than frost mages. But I guess this cliché will never die.