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*TTRPGs General
What Aspects of Older Games Have Aged Well? (+)
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8594288" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>I'll agree that 3e definitely had a bonus-hunting problem, and it was one that only got worse as time progressed... but that really mostly applied to skill checks. AD&D is the one that I remember having terrible situational modifiers in combat. Worse, some of them were +/-1 (shield facing, elevation, flanking, prayer/bless), some were +/-2 (charging, medium range), and others were +/-4 (called shot, blind, non-proficient, long range (or was that -5?)). If anything, 3e reduced a lot of the circumstantial modifier nonsense. Then there was always the risk of doing the math wrong of THAC0 - (die roll + bonus) as THAC0 - (die roll - bonus) or THAC0 - die roll + bonus.</p><p></p><p>I agree that the biggest problem with 3e attack rolls was almost entirely due to the way iterative attacks worked. Add to that the way two weapon fighting worked and it got bad. I remember playing a Whirling Frenzy Barbarian that used two weapon fighting and a versatile weapon and having just a ton of attack modes at level 12 or 13. Either just +25 (single attack) or +25/+20/+15 (two handed full) or +25/+25/+20/+15 (two handed frenzy) or +23/+23/+17/+17/+13 (TWF) or +23/+23/+23/+17/+17/+13 (TWF frenzy). I literally got to the point that I always used power attack to make my highest attack bonus always the same (+23). <em>That</em> was extremely obnoxious, but it didn't really show up until pretty high level. </p><p></p><p>Also, it was totally gone in 4e and 5e. I'm not a fan of 5e's underwhelming TWF rules, but they certainly fixed the above lunacy as well as eliminating the punitive way multiple attacks work. Further, 4e condensed nearly all situational combat modifers into "combat advantage", and 5e took it a step further and replaced most situational and temporary modifiers with either non-stacking advantage/disadvantage or bonus dice (bless/bane). When was the last time you went bonus-hunting in 5e, or forgot about a bonus or penalty?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 8594288, member: 6777737"] I'll agree that 3e definitely had a bonus-hunting problem, and it was one that only got worse as time progressed... but that really mostly applied to skill checks. AD&D is the one that I remember having terrible situational modifiers in combat. Worse, some of them were +/-1 (shield facing, elevation, flanking, prayer/bless), some were +/-2 (charging, medium range), and others were +/-4 (called shot, blind, non-proficient, long range (or was that -5?)). If anything, 3e reduced a lot of the circumstantial modifier nonsense. Then there was always the risk of doing the math wrong of THAC0 - (die roll + bonus) as THAC0 - (die roll - bonus) or THAC0 - die roll + bonus. I agree that the biggest problem with 3e attack rolls was almost entirely due to the way iterative attacks worked. Add to that the way two weapon fighting worked and it got bad. I remember playing a Whirling Frenzy Barbarian that used two weapon fighting and a versatile weapon and having just a ton of attack modes at level 12 or 13. Either just +25 (single attack) or +25/+20/+15 (two handed full) or +25/+25/+20/+15 (two handed frenzy) or +23/+23/+17/+17/+13 (TWF) or +23/+23/+23/+17/+17/+13 (TWF frenzy). I literally got to the point that I always used power attack to make my highest attack bonus always the same (+23). [I]That[/I] was extremely obnoxious, but it didn't really show up until pretty high level. Also, it was totally gone in 4e and 5e. I'm not a fan of 5e's underwhelming TWF rules, but they certainly fixed the above lunacy as well as eliminating the punitive way multiple attacks work. Further, 4e condensed nearly all situational combat modifers into "combat advantage", and 5e took it a step further and replaced most situational and temporary modifiers with either non-stacking advantage/disadvantage or bonus dice (bless/bane). When was the last time you went bonus-hunting in 5e, or forgot about a bonus or penalty? [/QUOTE]
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