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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5559733" data-attributes="member: 22779">Yeah, this is a playstyle thing.  And, it really depends what system you're using as well.  Some systems are FAR more forgiving of a single mistake than others.  After 1st or 2nd level, for example, AD&D characters are pretty durable (by and large) and most creatures can't kill you in a single round (barring of course, save or die, or bombing someone with a balor.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />)  So, trying something and losing a round to folly doesn't really make or break things.I honestly found 3e a lot less forgiving here since creatures are just SO much more capable of dealing large amounts of damage.  Blowing a single round, when most combats only last about 4 rounds, means a significant loss.I can honestly go either way.  In a fairly tactical, crunch heavy game like D&D (any version really) or say, a Palladium game, then yeah, I want to know the odds beforehand.  That's part of the game.  In a much softer game, I'm much more willing to wing it.Well, now you start getting into some dodgey territory.  Exactly what does the PC know?  Is duel wielding, for example, something a trained warrior has never tried before?  I think you could argue either way.  And, that sort of thing tends to bog down the game into "Yes I do" "Nuh uh" type arguments.I tend to err on the side that the warrior does know about weapons, and he probably should know how effective he would be if he picks up two swords.Now, if he picks up random magic item #12, then we're off to the races.I'm not sure that calculating the odds (ok, maybe calculating to ten decimal points is bad) is all that unrealistic though.  I think you could make a pretty strong argument that the character should, at least in fairly broad terms, know how effective using a particular weapon would be.It would probably come as a fairly large shock to get whacked with the 3e two weapon fighting penalties without warning.</blockquote>

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