NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3976336" data-attributes="member: 32164">I'm quite fond of it as well. I find I love its magic system for example. However, I wouldn't want to face dragons with a PC operating under the rules from The Black Company.I don't really want to get into how to best model a novel. But I'll say this. Despite their high levels, characters in the novels never seem to become immune to death. Would you agree with this?Because of that, it's very hard to properly model the dramatic flow of a story in a game. In classic tales of Robin Hood, for example, he beats many situations seemingly more dire than the one that eventually resulted in his death. You can't exactly make that work in D&D terms...The first is largely, in my opinion, a flavor issue. I'll give you what I think is a good example, stealing from Star Wars.Han Solo (6th-level scoundrel 4/soldier 2) is targeted by blaster fire. Han barely manages to avoid being hit, even though some of the shots come close enough to nearly singe his hair (loses several hit points). "Luck," he thinks, "just luck."Obi-Wan Kenobi (6th-level Jedi) is targeted by blaster fire. Obi-Wan manages to avoid being hit, deflecting many of the shots but the effort tires him out (loses several hit points). "The force is with me," thinks Obi-Wan.Mechanically, what's the difference? None. It's all flavor. Han just "got lucky," whereas Obi-Wan "deflected shots with his lightsaber."There's a difference between this situation with Obi-Wan and the one where he deflects blaster bolts effortlessly. The latter is covered by the Jedi talent "Deflect" whereas the former is hit point loss.In Star Wars, actually getting hit by a blaster bolt is usually lethal. In fact, only two film characters are ever hit by one and "just wounded." (That's Chewie and Leia, both in Return of the Jedi).I realize you like the added lethality, but hit points can represent "just luck." I know 4th Edition building that into the system at 1st-level is a change from earlier versions, but IMO, it could be a very good one. I'd rather see a variant rule whereby a solid hit (half the character's total hit points in one shot?) provokes, say, a persistent condition of "bloodied." That could be handy at ALL levels.But that's just my preference.</blockquote>

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