People have the strangest deal-breakers

[FireLance]

What if an encounter lasts more than 5 minutes?

You don't get encounter powers back every five minutes. You get encounter powers back after resting five minutes (a.k.a. a short rest).

Similarly, effects that last "until the end of the encounter" have a hard cap of five minutes. If you activated such a benefit on Round 1 of an encounter, and you are still engaged in the encounter five minutes later, the effect terminates before you start your turn on Round 51.

I should add, however, that grind or no grind, I've personally never experienced an encounter that lasted quite so long. (Although I'm sure that someone, somewhere has, the poor unfortunate soul.)

 

[Hassassin]

I should add, however, that grind or no grind, I've personally never experienced an encounter that lasted quite so long. (Although I'm sure that someone, somewhere has, the poor unfortunate soul.)

I've had chases last minutes. I usually ask for opposed Dex rolls every minute, if speeds are equal.

 

[Reynard]

I've had chases last minutes. I usually ask for opposed Dex rolls every minute, if speeds are equal.

This is more what I was thinking. A running battle through a kobold warren or the cat-and-mouse game of a minotaur's labyrinth are "an encounter" IMO. But, as I said, I theink the "encounter power" design paradigm (not just the individual mechanic, but all of the associated play issues) is "not D&D" and needs to go away. Forever.

 

[Neonchameleon]

If you don't see the difference between a ranger gaining a few nature spells at 8th level and the over-the-top feats available in 3.0 and beyond, nothing I say will make my point here. There are levels of suspension of disbelief and later edition feats are significantly more difficult to rationalize than the abilities earned through leveling up in early editions. It's a lot easier to build into the campaign storyline the new abilities gained through leveling in 2e and 1e than subsequent additions.

Acquiring the ability to work magic is less remarkable than learning how to shoot a bit farther, more accurately at very short ranges, or slightly honing one's reflexes, fortitude, or will?

I'm with Oni here. Most feats are far far less jarring than getting an entire extra level of spells, let alone miraculously gaining out of nowhere the ability to have a castle. Especially if your character doesn't want a castle.

axiomatic strike (hey i've "learned" how to do extra damage against "chaotic" opponents!)

A monk power - hardly any more outlandish than other powers AD&D monks get.

destructive rage (hey i've "learned" how to increase my strength by 8 on command!)

You mean rage gets slightly more effective. Not a problem compared to e.g. Getting A Castle.

faster healing (hey i've "learned" how to heal faster!)

Makes perfect sense to me, knowing self-healing techniques and knowing how not to aggravate wounds.

greater resiliency (hey i've "learned" how to not take as much damage when hit with things!)

You mean you have a problem with hit points?

intimidating rage (hey i've "learned" how to yell at an enemy and make them "shaken"!)

If a Barbarian's raging at me I'm going to be intimidated. Some will be more intimidating than others.

weakening touch (hey i've "learned" how to make enemies lose 6 strength by hitting them!)

Pressure points. This is a monk ability.

these are just from the complete warrior book. most books containing feats contain a solid percentage of crap feats that grant quasi-magical abilities that make no intuitive sense in a world where characters (prior to 3.0) always had to pray for or study for spell-casting.

And that's the part that made no intuitive sense to me. Why in such a high magic world there were people who weren't wizards. For that matter, hit points are supernatural - if an orc lands a critical hit on any human alive with an axe they are going to die. Every adventurer was supernatural - but it was only expressed by their toughness unless they were an explicit caster. Why couldn't I play Hercules or Cucuhlain?

with 4E it got even closer to video game design, complete with the reality-defying "once per encounter" abilities. seriously? how does your body know what constitutes an 'encounter'?

It's a superb narrative limit rather than a physical one as far as I'm concerned. Look at comics. How often is there a fastball special? 1/fight at most. Yes, it's not simulationist. But that doesn't mean it doesn't make sense.

What if an encounter lasts more than 5 minutes?

/full disclosure: I hate encounter powers with the passion in my cold little heart.

Then the encounter power ends. But you recharge after a rest (or scene change) not after 5 minutes.

 

[Mallus]

While the term "dealbreaker" is one of my least favorite contemporary locutions, I find I haz one...

... D&D Next has to play faster, at the table, than 3e/4e/Pathfinder. I'm less concerned with chargen time. I go back and forth over the relative merits of quick-gen/compex gen with lots of customization.

But having run AD&D since August, I can't see myself running a system which plays slowly during a session again.

 

[kitsune9]

The funniest thing is I've been going into this whole thing incredibly open-minded. I only had one deal-breaker... and it looks like they've broken the deal. I want 5E to be a NEW D&D, not an old D&D with a little makeup and powder. Unless they are playing their cards close to the vest, we're getting a tricked-out 1970 Impala.

Maybe they may introduce some new mechanics that will fall on the optional spectrum, but I think that's the goal of WotC this time around--the tricked-out 1970 Impala that you described so that everyone who's still playing their favorite iterations can get a more updated and modernized version of it.

Of course, if they succeed in doing that, then there is some positives out of this instead of buying the core rules:

1. Modules that can be used for your favorite iteration.
2. Settings or updates to existing settings.
3. If there's an OGL, then expect 3rd party to adopt their various mods and settings and rule splatbooks for your favorite iternation.

Hopefully.

 

[HRG]

There is a thread over on Big Purple concerning random ability scores that is making me hate humanity. What it seems to boil down to is the pro-random people are totally cool with alternate methods (point buy/arrays) being included, while the anti-random types seem insulted that the devs would even consider including such a heinous method - a method only used by people looking to cheat their way to a super-powered pretend elf, no less.

The sheer amount of snarling and rage generated over this is baffling. I haven't looked to see if there is a similar thread here. In truth I'm a little hesitant to do so.

 

[William Ronald]

There is a thread over on Big Purple concerning random ability scores that is making me hate humanity. What it seems to boil down to is the pro-random people are totally cool with alternate methods (point buy/arrays) being included, while the anti-random types seem insulted that the devs would even consider including such a heinous method - a method only used by people looking to cheat their way to a super-powered pretend elf, no less.

The sheer amount of snarling and rage generated over this is baffling. I haven't looked to see if there is a similar thread here. In truth I'm a little hesitant to do so.

For the most part, I think that we have been pretty civil here. I do think that people can disagree but be respectful. Heated arguments can lead to hurt feelings.

 

[Phebius]

There is a thread over on Big Purple concerning random ability scores that is making me hate humanity. What it seems to boil down to is the pro-random people are totally cool with alternate methods (point buy/arrays) being included, while the anti-random types seem insulted that the devs would even consider including such a heinous method - a method only used by people looking to cheat their way to a super-powered pretend elf, no less.

The sheer amount of snarling and rage generated over this is baffling. I haven't looked to see if there is a similar thread here. In truth I'm a little hesitant to do so.

It's baffling a number of us over there as well.