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What is the essence of D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7808850" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>Well, my bit of it is about the Primacy of Magic as the unique Essentially D&D element missing from 4e.</p><p></p><p>And that ties into the fact that magic item abundance tends to favor classes who lack magical abilities, themselves, in the sense that the fact supports the supposition. In authentically-D&D D&D, classes with magic are superior to those without, but that disparity is equalized by sufficiently available, class-specific, and powerful magic items. </p><p></p><p>In contrast, 4e, lacking the Primacy of Magic, could do without magic items by flipping on inherent bonuses, and the mundane (martial source) characters would still be reasonably balanced with the supernatural (Arcane, Divine, etc) ones.</p><p></p><p>Conflict-neutral play?</p><p></p><p>Dungeons weren't automatically horrible, it was the 'Crawling' that was just tedious* compared to the other modes of play you mentioned - unless you abstracted the crawling into a Skill Challenge, then it was fine. I figured that out early - but converting Temple of the Frog really drove it home. Trying to have players map that thing was a nightmare, having them make a series of decisions and checks to explore the area and string together the otherwise random combats, though, worked nicely.</p><p></p><p>So, an Epic Heroic Fantasy RPG? Heh.</p><p></p><p>Well, and if you do end up with 8 +1 swords you can pretty quickly recruit 8 surprisingly loyal low-level-fighter henchmen, and carve up some magic-weapon-to-hit monsters. Oh, some of the henchs'll die, but the swords'll still be there...</p><p></p><p>True. 3e actually slightly reigned in magic items, slightly. They became less arbitrary and more consistent with the power of spells. Still hugely powerful, vitally important, could be quite character-defining, but didn't quite rise(?) to the level of character-overriding they could in the TSR era.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>* it's not like a dungeon crawl being tedious is doin' it wrong or anything, it's just contrasted with other, non-tedious adventures, they kinda stood out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7808850, member: 996"] Well, my bit of it is about the Primacy of Magic as the unique Essentially D&D element missing from 4e. And that ties into the fact that magic item abundance tends to favor classes who lack magical abilities, themselves, in the sense that the fact supports the supposition. In authentically-D&D D&D, classes with magic are superior to those without, but that disparity is equalized by sufficiently available, class-specific, and powerful magic items. In contrast, 4e, lacking the Primacy of Magic, could do without magic items by flipping on inherent bonuses, and the mundane (martial source) characters would still be reasonably balanced with the supernatural (Arcane, Divine, etc) ones. Conflict-neutral play? Dungeons weren't automatically horrible, it was the 'Crawling' that was just tedious* compared to the other modes of play you mentioned - unless you abstracted the crawling into a Skill Challenge, then it was fine. I figured that out early - but converting Temple of the Frog really drove it home. Trying to have players map that thing was a nightmare, having them make a series of decisions and checks to explore the area and string together the otherwise random combats, though, worked nicely. So, an Epic Heroic Fantasy RPG? Heh. Well, and if you do end up with 8 +1 swords you can pretty quickly recruit 8 surprisingly loyal low-level-fighter henchmen, and carve up some magic-weapon-to-hit monsters. Oh, some of the henchs'll die, but the swords'll still be there... True. 3e actually slightly reigned in magic items, slightly. They became less arbitrary and more consistent with the power of spells. Still hugely powerful, vitally important, could be quite character-defining, but didn't quite rise(?) to the level of character-overriding they could in the TSR era. * it's not like a dungeon crawl being tedious is doin' it wrong or anything, it's just contrasted with other, non-tedious adventures, they kinda stood out. [/QUOTE]
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