D&D 5E Sell me on Wizards

[KarinsDad]

I find it pretty hypocritical to stand in a river of the blood of that last goblin's friends and worry about how killing the prisoner is going to stain our fragile souls.

Breaking and entering, murder, and theft is the bread and butter of nearly all PCs, regardless of alignment and morals. It's just couched as "we only do this for non-civilized monsters and foes outside the law".

 

[Celtavian]

That doesn't really follow, does it?

Bounded accuracy means that every point of AC is commensurately more valuable because lower level creatures will be hitting you that much more often. With two handed fighting, you're pumping out damage at the expense of your defences; that's fine, but it isn't the only valid build and you'll be taking many more hits than a sword/shield fighter, and will be hitting your full potential far less easily than an archer fighter.

Not sure two weapons grants much differentiation, but perhaps magic weapons will be the answer there, letting you gain the advantages of two awesome magic toys rather than one.

Why would that be true given the limits on AC? AC does not rise like proficiencies and stats. Attack roll does.

If you have AC 21 1st level, chances are you'll have maybe 23 at level 15.

Where as a fighter has +5 to hit at level 1. He'll have +10 to 12 at level 15. That's a 10% increase to AC. And a 200% increase to attack roll.

So your options for increasing AC are extremely limited, while your option for increased damage is much, much greater. So let's say you're fighting those little creatures that can still hit you. Is it better to invest in defensive fighting to gain a +1 AC or Great Weapon Fighting and Master where your boosting your damage by +10 as well as the ability to reroll a 1 or 2 on the die. Thus you kill the enemy at a far faster rate eliminating attacks against, whereas the +1 AC provides a far inferior option given the slower rate of killing for a mere +3 AC bonus if using sword and board.

A kill rate that boosts damage by +10 per hit, roughly a 200% damage increase versus all the but highest ACs is far superior than a +1 to 3 bonus that only reduces your hit chance marginally. It's a very imbalanced choice at the moment for almost all ACs. Great Weapon Fighting is far superior by a rather extreme margin. You'll see this exhibited more and more as levels rise given high level creatures attack bonuses increase at a superior rate to AC enhancement. The same cannot be said for damage.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

So instead of the threat of torture, we're just threatening to kill them.

By "save their own hide" I meant "get out of trouble". I didn't mean to imply that the PCs would have to threaten a prisoner with death.

Even if you aren't completely sure a freed prisoner is going to seek revenge, it's probably not worth putting the hypothesis to the test.

The point that I was trying to make is that when I've seen (and had) this sort of reaction, it's more of a reaction to a GM who overplays most or all of their NPCs as tight-lipped, revenge-seeking fanatics. I think this occurs when GMs don't fully consider their NPCs' motivations and instead use the NPCs as a means to stonewall or punish the players. I think if GMs made NPCs less fanatical, interrogations wouldn't head towards torture and players would be less apt to kill prisoners just to be sure they won't seek revenge.

 

[Joe Liker]

The point that I was trying to make is that when I've seen (and had) this sort of reaction, it's more of a reaction to a GM who overplays most or all of their NPCs as tight-lipped, revenge-seeking fanatics. I think this occurs when GMs don't fully consider their NPCs' motivations and instead use the NPCs as a means to stonewall or punish the players. I think if GMs made NPCs less fanatical, interrogations wouldn't head towards torture and players would be less apt to kill prisoners just to be sure they won't seek revenge.

Ah, I see what you mean. It's a good point.