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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7590713" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>As a game designer, imagining myself to be a player for the sake of understanding how the game will play out, I absolutely don't want the mechanics to dictate that a character is bad at whatever thing they're supposed to be good at. There are plenty of games where you try to build a competent marksman, and the mechanics dictate that you'll still fail to hit a barn door more than half the time. Those are bad games. I didn't sign up to play Keystone Cops. Early D&D was notorious for this, with the Thief class that had a pitiful chance to do <em>anything</em>.</p><p></p><p>If combat in Pathfinder was nothing but one character on the receiving end of 20 arrows, then you might have a point. As it stands, the tank being targeted is a fairly small part of the over-all session. When it does come up, I expect the tank to succeed at their task, in much the same way that I expect the rogue to successfully disable any traps we find. That's the entire reason why we brought them along in the first place.</p><p></p><p>Armor Class matters for non-specialists. The ranger has a better AC than the wizard, and while neither of them should be on the receiving end of too many attacks, that's exactly the kind of unpredictable situation where we'd expect the variance of the die to matter. The ranger <em>might</em> be able to pick a lock, of the rogue is indisposed, and that's why we bother tracking all of these numbers. But one a specialist is operating in their area of specialization, they should succeed an overwhelming majority of the time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7590713, member: 6775031"] As a game designer, imagining myself to be a player for the sake of understanding how the game will play out, I absolutely don't want the mechanics to dictate that a character is bad at whatever thing they're supposed to be good at. There are plenty of games where you try to build a competent marksman, and the mechanics dictate that you'll still fail to hit a barn door more than half the time. Those are bad games. I didn't sign up to play Keystone Cops. Early D&D was notorious for this, with the Thief class that had a pitiful chance to do [I]anything[/I]. If combat in Pathfinder was nothing but one character on the receiving end of 20 arrows, then you might have a point. As it stands, the tank being targeted is a fairly small part of the over-all session. When it does come up, I expect the tank to succeed at their task, in much the same way that I expect the rogue to successfully disable any traps we find. That's the entire reason why we brought them along in the first place. Armor Class matters for non-specialists. The ranger has a better AC than the wizard, and while neither of them should be on the receiving end of too many attacks, that's exactly the kind of unpredictable situation where we'd expect the variance of the die to matter. The ranger [I]might[/I] be able to pick a lock, of the rogue is indisposed, and that's why we bother tracking all of these numbers. But one a specialist is operating in their area of specialization, they should succeed an overwhelming majority of the time. [/QUOTE]
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