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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 365862" data-attributes="member: 812">Well, certainly the PHB has nothing like 95% combat feats. Meta-magic and a host of others (Alertness, Track, etc) certainly make the core game much less than 95% combat.More combat than anything else, sure. But I think that's appropriate.Well, all I can say is I only really need rules in a game for situations that I don't just want to issue fiat rulings on. Character interaction, puzzle-solving and mystery investigation I don't really need rules for. Frankly, the Skills chapter in the PHB covers all that stuff as thoroughly as I need. What I really need rules for are to cover situations like combat, where character survival is in question, tension is high and everybody wants to have some unpredictability in the outcome. That's what makes it exciting.When the players are trying to convince the Countess to come upstairs so one of their number can jimmy the safe, I don't need much in the way of rules. I have my player roll a die, provide me with some estimate of how persuasive they are, and compare that against my mental notion of how determined the Countess is. I don't actually need any rules at all, just a way to normalize people's abilities.With combat, though, I need drastically more precision and detail. It's really the only aspect of the game where I do.Well, that, and the magic system. That needs to be carefully detailed as well in order to limit PC power.Somebody mentioned that 1e was almost completely combat. That's absolutely true. I don't even believe that "Secondary Skills" were even introduced in the original PHB or DMG. I think they were first mentioned in Unearthed Arcana. So the focus on combat is just a part of D&D. One of the reasons I like it.</blockquote>

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