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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bardolph" data-source="post: 1198261" data-attributes="member: 2304">This is intentional, and has a lot to do with why D&D is such a successful game.While it might be fun and "heroic" to have a single blowdart needle get "lucky" and kill an Ancient Red Dragon with one hit, it certainly isn't quite so "fun" when a 1st-level kobold commoner gets "lucky" and kills a 15th-level PC Fighter in one hit.You see, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, too.And remember, the character who sees the most combat is most likely to be the VICTIM of such "lucky" rolls.  And guess who this is going to be?The PC's.I think the DMG talks about this.  "Adding randomness favors the underdog."  And in the vast majority of situations, it is the PC's enemies that are the underdog.All this means is, more dead PC's.And, while this may be more "realistic," it is usually not more fun.But also remember that, even when the natural 20 hits an otherwise unhittable creature, it only does normal damage.  How many more natural 20's have to be rolled before the Old Red Dragon goes down?  Now that would be a one-in-a-million chance!Now, if your 1st-level archer has a single arrow of dragon slaying, and both(a) needs a natural 20 to hit, and(b) needs the dragon to fail the DC 20 Fortitude save (which, for older dragons, only happens on a natural "1"),I'd say that the odds are still heavily stacked in favor of the dragon, and in a game, the odds are small enough that if it actualy succeeded, I would consider it a miracle (even  if the relatively "high" 1:200 odds are still a far cry from the "one in a million" you are looking for). It really depends on how well equipped the character is to exploit that first turn.  Remember that the loser is Flat-Footed for that first round, and hasn't had the opportunity to declare Dodge targets, Combat Expertise, etc, etc.  Plus, if you've got a Sneak Attack, you could do some pretty serious damage on that first round.Also, if you gain surprise in addition to winning the initiative, you can get a Partial Charge, plus a Full Attack option (including iterative attacks) while the opponent is still Flat-Footed!  Again, if you can exploit Flat-Footed opponents, here is some serious nastiness.Plus, if you use that first round to conduct Trip/Disarm/Sunder attacks, you could very well create an advantage which will last well into the battle.The single biggest advantage to going first is that, once you've dropped your enemy, they don't get the opportunity to strike back.  This means that the faster character always has an advantage of one round's worth of attacks.No, but imagine a Spring Attack with a reach weapon.  That's run in, strike, run out, then Attack of Opportunity when the enemy tries to close in.And if you use that AoO to trip the opponent, you can get another AoO when they get up.With Feinting, it's also a precision thing.  Besides, wouldn't Tumble, Bluff, Dodge, Expertise, Mobility, Disarm, Trip, and Sneak Attack all be very "swashbucklery" things to do?Keep in mind that Sneak Attack damage is an abstraction.  It doesn't have to be "dirty," if "dirty" doesn't fit your character.  There's nothing wrong with saying that Sneak Attack damage represents "honorably" running your opponent through the heart!What are some of the features of the Unfettered class?No.  If you lose initiative, you get one free standard action.  If you win initiative, you get one free standard action, plus one full round (all the while the opponent is flat footed)!This has mostly to do with how well prepared and how well coordinated the initiative-winning part is.  Winning initiative is only an advantage if you know how to press it.But wouldn't you agree that a "low-level" character should find such behavior dangerous??  After all, the reason that they are Big Bad Evil Guys in the first place is because they can hurt people!Besides, even a low-level character can (1) Rush in and bash "defensively", plus dodge (that's +3 AC!).  (2) Pray the bad guy misses.  (3) Run away and hope said bad guy gives chase.I agree that the freeze-frame initiative system has its problems, but it's SO much better (and more playable) than the simultaneous systems of previous editions!unless you want to have effective offense...Besides, isn't that exactly what feats are for???  So you can customize your fighting style??And hey!  You can be a swashbuckler without taking a bunch of feats.  Just dress smartly, learn the rapier and keep a sharp wit, right?But if you want to fight with all kinds of fancy schmancy maneuvers, then take the bloody feats!  That's what they're for!I think it's handled extremely elegantly, with the Attack of Opportunity system.D&D3e abstracts all of this mechanical detail by introducing Feats.In GURPS, you're supposed to get an insanely high weapon skill, and then trade your score for various kinds of specialized attacks.  Which more or less works, but requires some hard-core number crunching to figure it all out.In D&D3e, you just take some feats, and suddenly you can do all these crazy things in combat, that other people can't do.Except when you're the DM.  Well that depends on whether or not you used all those ridiculous "weapon speed" and "weapon type versus armor" modifiers (has ANYONE ever tried to use that stuff??)Well, D&D has the abstract hit point system, where hit points also represents "luck," "near misses" and that kind of stuff.  But since critical hits are less-than-rare, and because Feats tend to mix it up a bit, I'd say that even a long D&D battle can still have plenty of dramatic flair -- more so than the "hit/parry/hit/parry/hit/parry/hit/parry/hit/parry/hit/parry/hit/miss-parry/die" cycle of GURPS.In 3ed, even the Conan-style characters have feats!  However, they will probably pick a different set than your swashbuckler.</blockquote>

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