Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mechanics you DO want to see return
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 7847615" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>This is difficult for me... I am not particularly married to game <em>mechanics</em>, but I wouldn't mind to see something scary like level drain come back, as long as it's designed better than in the past however... typically the problem in past edition was that level drain mechanics are always too complicated and painful to track, while at the same time they are too easy to get rid of.</p><p></p><p>More generally however, I believe that 5e is better suited than any previous editions for handling <em>ability drain</em> or <em>ability damage</em> effects. That's because the typical action resolution mechanics of 5e is always d20 + ability modifier + proficiency bonus (unlike for example 3e where you typically get many other modifiers), and this is so simple that you don't really need to pre-calculate your bonuses for everything. I know that most players still do it because they're used to doing it for decades, but it is not necessary anymore in 5e to write down your total bonus for every single skill or saving throw, when the bonus is always just the ability modifier + proficiency! All you need to do is check if you are proficient or not. </p><p></p><p>I know you can play the game like that without pre-calculations because I've been doing it with my 7yo kids, using our own customized character sheets where there is no room for pre-calculating skill bonuses (<a href="https://www.enworld.org/resources/quickstart-5e-character-sheet-beginner-friendly.1415/" target="_blank">Quickstart 5e character sheet (beginner friendly)</a>). We still pre-calculate weapon attacks and AC because those are used all the time in combat, but not skills and saves.</p><p></p><p>With that in mind, it should be a piece of cake to handle ability damage, you just write down your temporary ability score and bonus next to the "normal" score, and use the temporary value on the fly when making a roll.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 7847615, member: 1465"] This is difficult for me... I am not particularly married to game [I]mechanics[/I], but I wouldn't mind to see something scary like level drain come back, as long as it's designed better than in the past however... typically the problem in past edition was that level drain mechanics are always too complicated and painful to track, while at the same time they are too easy to get rid of. More generally however, I believe that 5e is better suited than any previous editions for handling [I]ability drain[/I] or [I]ability damage[/I] effects. That's because the typical action resolution mechanics of 5e is always d20 + ability modifier + proficiency bonus (unlike for example 3e where you typically get many other modifiers), and this is so simple that you don't really need to pre-calculate your bonuses for everything. I know that most players still do it because they're used to doing it for decades, but it is not necessary anymore in 5e to write down your total bonus for every single skill or saving throw, when the bonus is always just the ability modifier + proficiency! All you need to do is check if you are proficient or not. I know you can play the game like that without pre-calculations because I've been doing it with my 7yo kids, using our own customized character sheets where there is no room for pre-calculating skill bonuses ([URL="https://www.enworld.org/resources/quickstart-5e-character-sheet-beginner-friendly.1415/"]Quickstart 5e character sheet (beginner friendly)[/URL]). We still pre-calculate weapon attacks and AC because those are used all the time in combat, but not skills and saves. With that in mind, it should be a piece of cake to handle ability damage, you just write down your temporary ability score and bonus next to the "normal" score, and use the temporary value on the fly when making a roll. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mechanics you DO want to see return
Top