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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
What if we removed the half-level bonus to everything?
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<blockquote data-quote="tatoolo" data-source="post: 4569840" data-attributes="member: 78650"><p>(Note: this is my first post on this forum, so play nice! On top of that, I've only been playing D&D for a month or so, so perhaps hearing the opinion of someone new to the game might help shed some light on the debate!)</p><p></p><p>I've heard that one thing 4E has done well is simplifying things, and it seems getting rid of number padding would certainly be simplifying things. It's a pain to be adjusting my character sheet every now and then (our DM advances us a bit faster than usual, which I understand to be the norm unless you expect to be playing with the same group and characters for a long time). </p><p></p><p>When I increase my skills, I don't really feel like I'm advancing. Even though I'm one point stealthier than I was a moment ago, I know that I'm not going to be doing any sleuthing; that's always going to be the rogue's job. When everyone in the party is adding the same bonus to the same numbers, then my role in the party doesn't change at all, and only the things that differentiate me from the other PCs (powers, feats) makes me feel like my character is growing more powerful.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>I think perhaps looking at this topic from a different perspective could be helpful. In particular, how would the game change if, instead of adding one half your level, you <strong>added your full level</strong> (and monsters were adjusted accordingly)? Well, now each level would give the players a greater feeling of character advancement (to the point where adding one half your level seems very limiting in the context of character advancement! Why should you only become more powerful on even levels? As a newcomer to D&D, the odd levels don't give me nearly the same feeling of advancement as the even levels, due to the current topic of discussion, as well as being able to choose feats only on even levels). Also, the range of levels for which a DM can effectively choose enemies is now narrower, since the character's attack and defense ratings increase twice as quickly.</p><p></p><p>Now, what would happen if you added twice your level instead of one half? Well, now people have an even greater feeling of character advancement, as gaining a level makes them much more powerful (those kobolds we were <em>just</em> fighting now seem puny!). Now the DM had better not veer outside of a +-1 level range, since anything beyond that is either absurdly weaker or stronger than the characters.</p><p></p><p>So, you might also want to consider the question "why would the designers choose to add one half a character's level, rather than some higher value?", and accept that scaling this value in one direction or the other has effects that can subjectively be benefits or detriments depending on who you ask.</p><p></p><p>Or perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tatoolo, post: 4569840, member: 78650"] (Note: this is my first post on this forum, so play nice! On top of that, I've only been playing D&D for a month or so, so perhaps hearing the opinion of someone new to the game might help shed some light on the debate!) I've heard that one thing 4E has done well is simplifying things, and it seems getting rid of number padding would certainly be simplifying things. It's a pain to be adjusting my character sheet every now and then (our DM advances us a bit faster than usual, which I understand to be the norm unless you expect to be playing with the same group and characters for a long time). When I increase my skills, I don't really feel like I'm advancing. Even though I'm one point stealthier than I was a moment ago, I know that I'm not going to be doing any sleuthing; that's always going to be the rogue's job. When everyone in the party is adding the same bonus to the same numbers, then my role in the party doesn't change at all, and only the things that differentiate me from the other PCs (powers, feats) makes me feel like my character is growing more powerful. *** I think perhaps looking at this topic from a different perspective could be helpful. In particular, how would the game change if, instead of adding one half your level, you [B]added your full level[/B] (and monsters were adjusted accordingly)? Well, now each level would give the players a greater feeling of character advancement (to the point where adding one half your level seems very limiting in the context of character advancement! Why should you only become more powerful on even levels? As a newcomer to D&D, the odd levels don't give me nearly the same feeling of advancement as the even levels, due to the current topic of discussion, as well as being able to choose feats only on even levels). Also, the range of levels for which a DM can effectively choose enemies is now narrower, since the character's attack and defense ratings increase twice as quickly. Now, what would happen if you added twice your level instead of one half? Well, now people have an even greater feeling of character advancement, as gaining a level makes them much more powerful (those kobolds we were [I]just[/I] fighting now seem puny!). Now the DM had better not veer outside of a +-1 level range, since anything beyond that is either absurdly weaker or stronger than the characters. So, you might also want to consider the question "why would the designers choose to add one half a character's level, rather than some higher value?", and accept that scaling this value in one direction or the other has effects that can subjectively be benefits or detriments depending on who you ask. Or perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about! :) [/QUOTE]
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What if we removed the half-level bonus to everything?
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