Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Grog" data-source="post: 940723" data-attributes="member: 6183">Re: What bugs meAre you kidding? 3E is by far the most lethal version of D&amp;D ever made, especially at the higher levels. In 1E and 2E, after you hit 12th-15th level or so, it became almost impossible to fail saving throws. In 3E, characters regularly fail saving throws against instant death effects even at high levels.It is getting more video-gamish in the sense that resurrecting dead characters is getting more and more common. It's obvious to me that 3E was designed with the idea in mind that characters would die and be resurrected every few levels. WotC increased the lethality of the game and &quot;balanced&quot; it by reducing the costs of being resurrected. This isn't an attitude towards game design that I like - if characters are dropping dead and popping right back up every few levels, it has a huge impact on campaign verisimilitude for me. Why do you think virtually no fantasy book series out there have characters with the ability to raise the dead? Because it saps dramatic tension and cheapens the challenges the characters face. If resurrections do happen, it's usually a major event with a huge impact on the character and the story as a whole (e.x. - Gandalf). It's not, &quot;Whoops, looks like Bob was a little slow fighting that purple worm. Time to warm up the ol' holy symbol.&quot; Now, games aren't books and they have to balance drama with playability, but IMO WotC went way too far.But the thing is, there really is no danger. Once you pass a certain level, if you die, you can just be resurrected and continue playing. Sure, you'll lose a level, but that has no impact on your ability to eventually reach higher levels - it'll just take a little longer. But it does make it a lot harder for the DM to create any kind of a tense atmosphere when nothing short of a TPK (and sometimes not even that!) can permanently kill a character.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grog, post: 940723, member: 6183"] [b]Re: What bugs me[/b] Are you kidding? 3E is by far the most lethal version of D&D ever made, especially at the higher levels. In 1E and 2E, after you hit 12th-15th level or so, it became almost impossible to fail saving throws. In 3E, characters regularly fail saving throws against instant death effects even at high levels. It is getting more video-gamish in the sense that resurrecting dead characters is getting more and more common. It's obvious to me that 3E was designed with the idea in mind that characters would die and be resurrected every few levels. WotC increased the lethality of the game and "balanced" it by reducing the costs of being resurrected. This isn't an attitude towards game design that I like - if characters are dropping dead and popping right back up every few levels, it has a huge impact on campaign verisimilitude for me. Why do you think virtually no fantasy book series out there have characters with the ability to raise the dead? Because it saps dramatic tension and cheapens the challenges the characters face. If resurrections do happen, it's usually a major event with a huge impact on the character and the story as a whole (e.x. - Gandalf). It's not, "Whoops, looks like Bob was a little slow fighting that purple worm. Time to warm up the ol' holy symbol." Now, games aren't books and they have to balance drama with playability, but IMO WotC went way too far. But the thing is, there really is no danger. Once you pass a certain level, if you die, you can just be resurrected and continue playing. Sure, you'll lose a level, but that has no impact on your ability to eventually reach higher levels - it'll just take a little longer. But it does make it a lot harder for the DM to create any kind of a tense atmosphere when nothing short of a TPK (and sometimes not even that!) can permanently kill a character. [/QUOTE]

Verification