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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6862733" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Oh, my.I hadn't realized until this post that we're talking about entirely different games. I had assumed, because this is the 5E forum, that you were talking about 5E, which is a very different game from AD&D 2nd edition (my previous edition of D&D) despite superficial similarities and quite a lot of adaptable/shared content.I appreciate the fact that it must have taken quite a lot of time for you to write up your PCs in such detail, but since you're talking about a game which I have zero exposure to except via two video games (Temple of Elemental Evil and Icewind Dale II) please understand that my knowledge of the game you're playing is superficial and a lot of what you've written is meaningless to me out of context. For example, I can't quite tell whether AC 21 and 103 HP is intended to be impressively high or low. I can tell you, based on your comments about his MADness, that his stats would matter a lot less in 5E. For example, you mention the "handicap" of his Dex 10 and "it means he's never fought well in heavy armor except when mounted," which seems to be related to his AC--but in 5E, Dex doesn't matter at all for AC purposes when you're wearing heavy armor, although it still affects ranged weaponry and initiative rolls and Dex saves. I also recall that in IWD2, character classes tried to make use of every stat (e.g. undead turning was based off of Charisma, so clerics were forced to some extent to boost both Wisdom and Charisma) and you say he needs Str/Con/Wis/Chr. In 5E, if you translate him to a Paladin, that Wisdom dependency goes away, and his Aura of Protection compensates for poor Dex and other saves. Instead of needing Str/Dex/Con/Wis/Cha, you now have a character who just needs Str and Cha plus some Con--and because of bounded accuracy, he doesn't even need all that much Str or Con. It's possible there are other factors in your 3E game that make stat rolls extremely important to you but I'm afraid I'm not in the best position to analyze 3E for you, since I'm just guessing at things based on your descriptions. For example, I don't know 3E's rules for going to zero HP, and how much danger your 40 HP sorceress is when she's at 7 HP. In 5E she may or may not be in much danger at all, depending on how she got to 7 HP in the first place--if it's a single giant who just critted her for 33 HP, she's pretty safe, but if a swarm of giant rats just hit her six times for 33 HP total she's likely in mortal danger and should drop a Fireball on herself if there's no other way to get clear. Number of hits tends to matter more than the size of those hits in 5E (broadly generalizing), and I don't know if that's true in 3E because my videogame PCs rarely dropped to zero HP.As for Combat As War: this thread (<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?317715-Very-Long-Combat-as-Sport-vs-Combat-as-War-a-Key-Difference-in-D-amp-D-Play-Styles" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?317715-Very-Long-Combat-as-Sport-vs-Combat-as-War-a-Key-Difference-in-D-amp-D-Play-Styles</a>) originated the terms, and I'd say that if you read posts #1 and #5 you'll pretty much know how I'm using them, especially the comment about "For CAW, an entire module is a game." The short version is that I run a sandbox with a high degree of player agency and an emphasis on heterogeneity and information uncertainty, and I expect players to approach problems pretty much as if it were a real fantasy world. That doesn't mean I rule out exciting adventure-generating coincidences--my players know they are Weirdness Magnets--but it does mean, for example, that just because there are two orcs in front of you is not a signal that you should commence making attack rolls. I've modified 5E rules in a few ways: my most important house rules are that(1) odd ability scores give you an extra +1 to ability checks, but not attack rolls or saving throws (to make odd scores not pointless/demoralizing)(2) instead of cyclic initiative, I use an AD&D-style variant similar to the 5E DMG's Speed Factor rules, but without any speed factors. I.e. everyone declares, then everyone acts, and when it's both unclear and important who acted first we roll an initiative contest to see who went first. This unifies combat and noncombat under the same set of mechanics (e.g. "did you manage to hide before the guard investigated the noise? roll an initiative contest"). Also, action declarations happen in order of intelligence, from lowest to highest, so high-Int characters have more information when they make their action declarations.(3) I use the DMG spell point variation for all classes, although warlocks obviously require a different points-per-level table, which is straightforward to derive.If you'd like some concrete examples of recent adventures and ways in which stat bonuses were almost trivialized compared to player decisions/tactics and usage of (non-stat-dependent) class abilities, I can supply some. But I am reluctant to do so without invitation for fear that my examples would be as much gibberish to you as your 3E musings are to me.</blockquote>

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