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My biggest gripe with 5e design
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7853835" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>And, yet, funnily enough, it was 3e I found to be most lethal. 1e and 2e? After you got about 4th or 5th level, you were virtual gods and nothing outside of save or die effects could actually kill you. It wasn't that the game was that much more dangerous, it's just that there were so many completely arbitrary things that could kill you - like poison. </p><p></p><p>So, we simply didn't use those monsters. End of problem. Medusa? Basilisk? Level draining undead? Might as well have not even existed in the games we played. We knew, even back then, that these were poorly designed creatures whose only "danger" lie in the luck of the die. There was no "planning" or "strategy" to these things. They were pure "gotcha" encounters that served virtually no purpose other than to drag the game down a swirling hate hole. </p><p></p><p>Maybe it's because I played a lot of modules back in the day. Because, guess what? Most of the modules don't feature level draining undead or gotcha save or die. They were there, from time to time, but, never the focus and usually fairly side bar sorts of things. </p><p></p><p>Sorry, I don't see any heroism in "Hey, I got lucky and made my saving throw today".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7853835, member: 22779"] And, yet, funnily enough, it was 3e I found to be most lethal. 1e and 2e? After you got about 4th or 5th level, you were virtual gods and nothing outside of save or die effects could actually kill you. It wasn't that the game was that much more dangerous, it's just that there were so many completely arbitrary things that could kill you - like poison. So, we simply didn't use those monsters. End of problem. Medusa? Basilisk? Level draining undead? Might as well have not even existed in the games we played. We knew, even back then, that these were poorly designed creatures whose only "danger" lie in the luck of the die. There was no "planning" or "strategy" to these things. They were pure "gotcha" encounters that served virtually no purpose other than to drag the game down a swirling hate hole. Maybe it's because I played a lot of modules back in the day. Because, guess what? Most of the modules don't feature level draining undead or gotcha save or die. They were there, from time to time, but, never the focus and usually fairly side bar sorts of things. Sorry, I don't see any heroism in "Hey, I got lucky and made my saving throw today". [/QUOTE]
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