My Rant Apology & Sell Me Flat Math

[JamesonCourage]

Well, I have some confidence in the R+D group in WotC. I bet they'll thought about it longer than the 2 seconds I took to bring this example out of my ass

Fair enough! I bet it won't be too bad overall. Looking forward to see how it turns out.

You know, the more I look at these sorts of debates, the more I realize I'm a person for whom the in-game fiction actually isn't primary. I'm happy to say a hit is a hit, and as you level you don't get much better at hitting or dodging, just better at dealing with getting hurt. Unrealistic, sure, but if it makes the game run better I'm for it. That's totally just a preference, and I can understand why you might strongly disagree. My concern is more that we may end up with fights that drag on forever because high HP amounts are the balancing mechanic.

Oh, our play style might differ, and that's fine. I imagine there are a lot more people like you than there are like me out there. We'll see how they make the mechanics, though. I'm guessing I can stomach it, but we'll see. Just waiting patiently to see more about the modularity.

I would say the HP threshold mechanic makes sense regardless of your HP fiction. If it represents luck or dodging or fate or exhaustion, it still follows that you're more likely to get hit by a spell if it's lower. Heck, if I'd been fighting all day and the nice wizard politely suggested I take a nap, I'd consider it pretty seriously. My guess is that while of course the wizard knows that it only works for creatures under 10 HP, when exactly an enemy or enemies get there won't be obvious, so once you're regularly up against creatures with >10 HP attending to that will be part of the resource management game. Or maybe you just decide that after a few levels Sleep just isn't that good any more, since at <10 HP they're basically dead anyway. Or maybe you can cast it as a third-level spell and the threshold increases to 20 HP. Not sure how they'll swing it but I think it can work.

Again, I just don't know what its effect on the in-game fiction will be, or if they're even concerned about it. When it comes to mechanics, I certainly am. Is a guy at 3 HP really tired? What about a 3 HP kobold that's at full health? Why can it put both to sleep? I'm not sure on the specifics yet, but HP thresholds and HP taking the main portion of defining the in-game fiction of the mechanics makes me a little skeptical. Not extremely skeptical, or anything, but enough that I'm waiting to see how it seems to play out. But, it's early, and I'm patient. We'll see. As always, play what you like