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Vanilla Essence: 1E Demographics and the Implied Setting
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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 4833203" data-attributes="member: 463"><p><em>Why would you want the PC to fail</em>?</p><p></p><p>I think PCs using abilities within their area of expertise should not be failing vs mundane people. The Rogue should be able to sneak past the soldiers in the castle, just as the Fighter could kill them with his swordand the Wizard go Invisible or Fireball them without fail. Higher failure rates on skill checks really shaft the skill-based PCs IMO, especially when they're also weak in combat.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, great article from the OP, sorry I missed it first time round - August 2007 my son was 2 months old, so not surprising! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Gearing up to run 4e, my perspective has shifted a lot. Unlike 1e through even 3e, 4e steers hard away from any rules-as-physics, and encourages arbitrary or ad-hoc statting of NPCs. </p><p></p><p>Currently I don't think I'm going to be using any PC-class NPCs in my upcoming 4e campaign, rather all NPCs will be statted as 'monsters', like the sample Humans in the MM. What were high-level spellcasters will be given a Ritual Casting level; blaster wizard types can use the human warmage stats from the MM, increased or decreased in level. Warrior types can use eg the Human Bandit or Human Guard stats, possibly with different special powers.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 4833203, member: 463"] [I]Why would you want the PC to fail[/I]? I think PCs using abilities within their area of expertise should not be failing vs mundane people. The Rogue should be able to sneak past the soldiers in the castle, just as the Fighter could kill them with his swordand the Wizard go Invisible or Fireball them without fail. Higher failure rates on skill checks really shaft the skill-based PCs IMO, especially when they're also weak in combat. Anyway, great article from the OP, sorry I missed it first time round - August 2007 my son was 2 months old, so not surprising! :) Gearing up to run 4e, my perspective has shifted a lot. Unlike 1e through even 3e, 4e steers hard away from any rules-as-physics, and encourages arbitrary or ad-hoc statting of NPCs. Currently I don't think I'm going to be using any PC-class NPCs in my upcoming 4e campaign, rather all NPCs will be statted as 'monsters', like the sample Humans in the MM. What were high-level spellcasters will be given a Ritual Casting level; blaster wizard types can use the human warmage stats from the MM, increased or decreased in level. Warrior types can use eg the Human Bandit or Human Guard stats, possibly with different special powers. [/QUOTE]
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