Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kerrick" data-source="post: 2971522" data-attributes="member: 4722"><a href="http://www.geocities.com/mistmane/files/v5.zip" target="_blank">Upper Krust's CR system.</a> A guy named UK (over on the House Rules forum, some of you may have heard of him) came up with a system whereby you can rate monsters based on their abilities, in discrete numbers. Now, to be fair, I don't know how he came up with those numbers in the first place - he may well have rated them against PC abilities, in which case I just stuck my foot in my mouth - but I can say this - his ratings are very accurate, a lot moreso than WotC's "Well, we'll add +1 for this ability, and +1/2 for that one," or "An ambusher's CR should be from 1/2 its HD to its HD." (that second quote is from the MM, p 302).But where's the FUN stuff? Where are the rust monsters, the save-or-die poisons, the deadly level drain? Granted, such things should be used sparingly, but the game's become so watered down that things like fireballs and swords and such are just "ho-hum" dangers that every adventurer faces.That was the point I was trying to make, but I didn't quite get it right. :/But it still has no reason for being besides "Take away the party's gear." And really, d20 characters are far too reliant on their gear - I've seen it again and again on various forums, the complaint that "the gear defines the character," not the other way around. This isn't to say that I don't agree with the rust monster needing an overhaul - its rusting ability was far too powerful - but now it's a slightly less powerful creature with no niche beyond DM fiat.Death ward, a 4th level cleric spell. Which, incidentally, you get at 7th level. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />To the person who told me that if I didn't like the changes to the system, I should go find another game (I can't find the quote - it might have gotten edited):I've been playing D&D for 17 years, through all three (or four, or whatever) editions. I've been designing new material for almost that long, so if I find something I don't agree with, I change it. I'm not going to turn my back on a game that I've been playing for more than half my life just because I don't agree with a few rules changes. Hell, if I thought that, I wouldn't even be posting here - I would have dumped my books and moved on to something else.And that, IMO, is a big problem with gamers these days - if they find something they don't like, that they think is "broken" (whether or not it really is), they don't change it - they piss and moan about it on various boards. And the designers give in to them without considering whether or not it really IS broken, simply because they're more interested in the fanbase and the bottom line than good design, and because of the "vocal minority". The rest of us, who think that the rule in question works just fine, aren't going to speak up, because we have no reason to. 90% of the time, the fault lies either with the players, who browbeat their DMs into allowing every book they can lay their hands on into the game, whether or not the material is balanced for that type of campaign, or the DMs, who are either incompetent to start with, or simply inexperienced or ignorant of the rules and allow the players to get away with things that they shouldn't (and then THEY go to the forums and say that their players are taking advantage of them). It goes to the point Henry made - if it's WotC, it's official and it should be allowed in the game, regardless of the DM's say-so. And the DMs apparently feel that they can't say no to their players - I've seen it time and again, especially on the WotC boards. "My player took XXX broken combo - what do I do?" Or "My player wants to make XXX broken spell - should I allow it?" They don't know how to put their foot down and say, "No, you can't do that," or don't want to for fear of offending their players, or simply believe in the philosophy of "If it's WotC, it's official, and it should be allowed in the game."</blockquote>

Verification