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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6095126" data-attributes="member: 82106">Then why do you look at it that way? Ultimately the 4e concept of a 'level 20' lock IS just a measure of 'quality', you can come up with a formula for lock costs and there are 30 entries on that, one for each level. The level 1 lock represents some simple mechanism poor people and cheap inns lock their doors with. Level 30 locks are made by insane locksmiths that work for Asmodeus on contract. There's NO rule in 4e that insists that you run into stuff of your level either. Stuff of your level in fact is generally a sort of mild challenge, stuff 5 levels up is HARD, and stuff beyond that is very very hard. Which is exactly what scaling does, it makes it so that challenges get easier as you level up. The 20th level guy can go through the level 1 lock with ease. Of course the things he normally wants to bother with aren't level one locks, they are the living spider locks of the drow house lords of the Underdark, which are not so easy. Of course if you WANT to make them easy, you CAN. The system is entirely flexible that way, you just make them easy DC checks/lower level checks. Obviously you should also award less XP for such easy tasks. Again, this is not really different from how AD&D etc have always worked.Sure, but why would a system like this ever be preferable? Again, characters have ALWAYS traditionally faced proportionate challenges. That is the entire essence of D&D. Look at the AD&D rogue, his chances of picking a lock GO UP WITH LEVEL, and right in the DMG it talks about using "higher quality locks" in lower dungeon levels, adding traps to the locks, etc to make it harder again. The point is I just can't imagine a system where the DM is told "nope, you shouldn't make locks harder at higher level" That seems quite bizarre to me and I fail utterly to grasp how that is supposed to make the game 'better'. Look at it this way, the 'lock quality' rule was a sort of vague idea in 1e (you could buy expensive locks and the DMG says something about locks that reduce Open Lock check chances), in 3e and 4e it is just polished up, the costs of these 'higher level' locks are spelled out and the penalty is spelled out (the target DC goes up). With no scaling we are just dropped back to AD&D level design where no official way to make things harder exists.</blockquote>

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