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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5070997" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, I certainly think it would be great if a system could do all that, but I'm not sure its possible. If you were to switch from scaling to-hit to just scaling damage then the problem is that combat gets VERY swingy as you go up in levels. Yes, you have more hit points as well but if a few of these ultra-high damage monsters hit you or one just hits you 2-3 times you can get insta-ganked, which doesn't really fit well with level based power curve concepts. The flip side is that the lower level monsters STILL cease to be a threat. It doesn't matter much if an N-10 monster needs to roll 20 times to hit you or 2 if it still needs to swing 100 times before you die.And in all fairness some sort of ideal might be met by tweaking the system to let you be in danger from 100 low level orcs when you're 20th level, but no standard set of RPG combat rules can handle 100 enemies anyway, so its moot. Better to tweak the system to give the best results with encounters that will actually happen. The DM can always create some kind of special rules for the 100 orcs scenario since he'll never be able to run it by the standard ones anyway. In that case he can make them some sort of hazard or whatever that is appropriately threatening for the situation. At that point it really is again moot what 100 actual mechanically distinct orcs would do.And as Nifft says the way to keep a particular type of monster relevant is to scale it up to fit the situation anyhow. Sure, technically its not literally the same monster as what you faced at lower levels, but its an 'orc' and from the in-game perspective that's all that matters.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 5070997, member: 82106"] Well, I certainly think it would be great if a system could do all that, but I'm not sure its possible. If you were to switch from scaling to-hit to just scaling damage then the problem is that combat gets VERY swingy as you go up in levels. Yes, you have more hit points as well but if a few of these ultra-high damage monsters hit you or one just hits you 2-3 times you can get insta-ganked, which doesn't really fit well with level based power curve concepts. The flip side is that the lower level monsters STILL cease to be a threat. It doesn't matter much if an N-10 monster needs to roll 20 times to hit you or 2 if it still needs to swing 100 times before you die. And in all fairness some sort of ideal might be met by tweaking the system to let you be in danger from 100 low level orcs when you're 20th level, but no standard set of RPG combat rules can handle 100 enemies anyway, so its moot. Better to tweak the system to give the best results with encounters that will actually happen. The DM can always create some kind of special rules for the 100 orcs scenario since he'll never be able to run it by the standard ones anyway. In that case he can make them some sort of hazard or whatever that is appropriately threatening for the situation. At that point it really is again moot what 100 actual mechanically distinct orcs would do. And as Nifft says the way to keep a particular type of monster relevant is to scale it up to fit the situation anyhow. Sure, technically its not literally the same monster as what you faced at lower levels, but its an 'orc' and from the in-game perspective that's all that matters. [/QUOTE]

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