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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8890323" data-attributes="member: 93670">It depends on the level range, how deadly the GM wants it to be, & so on.  I don't think that this discussion can be covered rightly without admitting the influence of <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-focus-fire-problem.690498/#post-8721960" target="_blank">DR/SR</a> & <a href="https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Armor_Class#Touch_Attacks" target="_blank">TouchAC</a> & iterative attack penalties*.  Those each provided the GM with tools they could use to adjust (or just choose) monsters that would pump the breaks on certain combat strategies or  put a ceiling/floor on things so even combat as sport didn't always feel that way [spoiler="here are some examples"]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5e full attack bonus to all attacks vrs Iterative attack penalties.  For simplicity imagine an example L11 fighter with 20 strength in both with a +1 weapon. (I'm going to ignore dex based because it needlessly complicates the example due to system differences).  I'm picking level 11 just because it makes a good comparison on this  mechanic<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">in 5e the fighter makes 3 attacks with +5(str)+4(prof)+1(weapon)=10 while a paladin barbarian ranger hexblade or whatever with an appropriate 20 makes 2 with the same bonuses.    In 3.x  the fighter & barbarian are going to make one attack at +11(BAB)+5(str)+1(weapon)=17+d20, a second attack at +6(BAB)+5(str)+1(weapon)=12+d20, & a third attack at +1(BAB)+5(str)+1(weapon)=7+d20.  That means that a monster can have an AC range that sets a target d20 for any of those without becoming trivial totally random or simply implausible to hit at all.  The same applied the other way around with PC AC & monstertohit</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">TouchAC.  Again dex was special but gets into an endless rabbit hole of <a href="https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Weapon_Finesse" target="_blank">different</a> <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/feat-that-gives-dex-to-damage.218829/" target="_blank">tradeoffs</a> & system differences.  This basically meant that an attacker could ignore (most) forms of armor & just target 10+dex with their attack roll.   Usually it was either a spell that consumed a spell slot or a terrifying monster like the <a href="https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/wraith.htm" target="_blank">wraith</a> but those touch spells tended to be SR:yes making it hard to become outright immune to all attackers like can effectively be accomplished in 5e rather easily.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">SR, spells came in SR:yes & SR:No with SR:yes spells trending towards save or lose & big nukes with good bang for the slot.  SR:no spells tended towards weaker damage options & <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5At3bTi04M" target="_blank">reciprocity</a> heavy save or suck type reciprocity spells that leaned on the rest of the group to be (more)awesome.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">DR was a flat value deducted from each attack that didn't bypass it.  This could be used to shift the damage output around a bit with some builds being hurt more or less than others by it.  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There was a flat elemental resistance too but tit's a rabbithole unless you go for simple comparison of a set of spells like burning hands to scorching ray  it was mostly useful for shifting the scales between bob's flaming weapon & alice's +N weapon or whatever since part of bob's damage was getting hit while alice's was not </li> </ul></li> </ul>[/spoiler]It all combined to allow a GM more leeway in firmly setting what side of the speedbump that a given encounter was for monsters & PCs without resorting to a razor's edge between idle games like cookie clicker & nintendohard stuff like battletoads or dark souls<a href="https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=322" target="_blank">*This</a> is more linkable & succinct than the PHB22 thing but same basic concept expressed differently if they learned to use it</blockquote>

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