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So, about defenses aka. PHB2 defenses feats
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<blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 4742226" data-attributes="member: 743"><p>Making the PCs hit more often or harder would be great at reducing grind. Lowering monster hit points would work as well. </p><p></p><p>Making monsters hit less often would have much less of an effect on grind, except in the case where the monsters are stunning, dominating, or weakening since none of the other common status effects will stop you from dealing damage. The hit point damage the monsters do isn't a big portion of the grind, as it either has 0 effect on the character's combat worthiness, or is healed via a minor action and/or a side effect of another attack.</p><p></p><p>What increasing PC defenses would have done to our campaign is make the encounters that felt dangerous (but really werent) not even feel that way. The only times the players got worried was when a monster was able to do one of those. Weakening was just an annoyance, and didn't really scare them apart from "great, we'll never kill this thing." Even stunning was only scary because it meant you had to sit there and do nothing. The real fear came from domination, because it meant that they were now facing a real threat: another PC.</p><p></p><p>Upping defenses isn't the way to fix epic levels. The way to fix epic levels IMO is threefold:</p><p></p><p>1) Make PCs hit more often. The damage they can deal is fine, it's the whiffs that make a fight go from fast and furious to "when will this end".</p><p></p><p>2) Make monsters hit harder. This way the PCs have something to fear besides just themselves or boredom.</p><p></p><p>3) Fix problematic conditions. This could be a few separate lines, but they're all related so I put them under one heading.</p><p> a. Reduce the frequency of stunning attacks or their durations. This makes some monsters still scary, but it'll be because they're combining stunning with big attacks, not because they can chain stun you and make you go watch TV.</p><p> b. Make domination shorter duration. With monsters dealing more damage there's less of a need to turn the party against each other.</p><p> c. Never, never, never, ever put Insubstantial creatures in a fight alongside creatures that can weaken on a hit. (This includes ones that have both in the same package). Nothing slows a fight down faster than PCs doing 1/4 damage. Even stunning everyone over and over again isn't as bad as this, because at least when you're stunned your turn is on autopilot and goes by fast.</p><p></p><p>I've never seen it in play, though before I had epic experience I created a creature that did it... insubstantial + weakening + swarm. Just. Don't. Do. It. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James McMurray, post: 4742226, member: 743"] Making the PCs hit more often or harder would be great at reducing grind. Lowering monster hit points would work as well. Making monsters hit less often would have much less of an effect on grind, except in the case where the monsters are stunning, dominating, or weakening since none of the other common status effects will stop you from dealing damage. The hit point damage the monsters do isn't a big portion of the grind, as it either has 0 effect on the character's combat worthiness, or is healed via a minor action and/or a side effect of another attack. What increasing PC defenses would have done to our campaign is make the encounters that felt dangerous (but really werent) not even feel that way. The only times the players got worried was when a monster was able to do one of those. Weakening was just an annoyance, and didn't really scare them apart from "great, we'll never kill this thing." Even stunning was only scary because it meant you had to sit there and do nothing. The real fear came from domination, because it meant that they were now facing a real threat: another PC. Upping defenses isn't the way to fix epic levels. The way to fix epic levels IMO is threefold: 1) Make PCs hit more often. The damage they can deal is fine, it's the whiffs that make a fight go from fast and furious to "when will this end". 2) Make monsters hit harder. This way the PCs have something to fear besides just themselves or boredom. 3) Fix problematic conditions. This could be a few separate lines, but they're all related so I put them under one heading. a. Reduce the frequency of stunning attacks or their durations. This makes some monsters still scary, but it'll be because they're combining stunning with big attacks, not because they can chain stun you and make you go watch TV. b. Make domination shorter duration. With monsters dealing more damage there's less of a need to turn the party against each other. c. Never, never, never, ever put Insubstantial creatures in a fight alongside creatures that can weaken on a hit. (This includes ones that have both in the same package). Nothing slows a fight down faster than PCs doing 1/4 damage. Even stunning everyone over and over again isn't as bad as this, because at least when you're stunned your turn is on autopilot and goes by fast. I've never seen it in play, though before I had epic experience I created a creature that did it... insubstantial + weakening + swarm. Just. Don't. Do. It. :) [/QUOTE]
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