Rule of Three: 20/3/12

[GM Dave]

New Rule of Three up.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Rule-of-Three: 03/20/2012)

I liked the discussion on minions and it is essentially how I am doing that sort of thing in PF.

Alignments - well there are threads already on that topic and it really doesn't do much for me unlike some of the other systems out in games like Dresden Files or Mouseguard.

Different Mechanics for classes - I'll wait and see to how this shapes up. It is interesting that Fighter and Rogue are again being associated as are Cleric and Paladin.

 

[Mark CMG]

Since AC and attack bonuses aren't automatically scaling up (. . .)

Sounds like they've set this one in stone.

 

[GreyICE]

So, minions are out as legit challenges, since anything 8 levels under you will have damage numbers from 8 levels ago (and will also involve rolling dice, slowing down combat).

The 'fighter makes many attacks, wizard casts one good spell' had me worried to.

They can't take away my 4e... Unless they kill insider...

 

[gyor]

Sounds like they've set this one in stone.

It makes sense, otherwise they just cancel each other out anyways.

As for the Rogue and Fighter combat manevuers, that actually sounded freaking awesome. Customize multiple attacks with different manevours to build unique combos.

They also confirmed that the Paladin will be a spell casting class.

 

[Tallifer]

I like what the Fifth Edition might do about minions and flattening the bonuses. I enjoyed the mechanical benefit of minions in the Fourth Edition, but they did strain belief at high levels: the monster could die with one blow, but it had a huge armour class.

I am nervous about most of things being said about fighters. Disarming, sundering, bull rushing, tripping and grappling are mundane everyday things any character can do with enough strength. I like to see some flashy and stunning tricks and combinations: basically many of the Fourth Edition powers were tricks that allowed the Fighter to do more than one thing with a single action. The Rule of Three here seems to be suggesting that the Fighter can do the three actions of hit, trip and push in one efficient action, but if it just means use your move and standard and minor action, that is three actions spent. The clerical Flamestrike takes one standard action. But i have no idea what the action economy will be in the Fifth Edition, which is why I am nervous but undecided.

 

[Incenjucar]

They totally failed to understand the point of minions. One-shot kill standard monsters isn't the answer, because it still leaves all the math. Bah.

 

[keterys]

But, if it has 8 hp and you do 1d6+7 damage, it's a minion.

Oh, and if you do half damage on miss (or save for half) then... I guess two misses kills it. And if you do 2d6+14 then... I guess a miss kills it.

And if there's a room full of them and that was an area attack. I... guess... everything just dies. Whee?

 

[Mark CMG]

Are they keeping "miss damage?"

 

[Incenjucar]

And as a bonus, if they win initiative, the DM gets to roll damage for each of them. And because they're built on standard monsters, they're likely to have more complex mechanics, which the DM will have to track. Not to mention that minions often had very minion-specific mechanics, like exploding on death.

 

[Incenjucar]

Are they keeping "miss damage?"

If wizards can actually miss, you can be sure they'll get miss damage.