Jacob Lewis
Ye Olde GM
Using the d20 for the basis of mechanics which determine the pass/fail state of everything you want to accomplish in an otherwise deeply complex game that is (supposedly) driven by narrative and roleplaying.
It's a bigger fantasy to me than anything else in D&D...I think it was written by the Bookworms dreaming that they are just as good at combat as a Navy Seal or something.
You are dead to me!I'll first go against the grain here and say I like level drain.![]()
I agree with all of what you're saying. I think there's also a bit of culture shock because I hadn't DMed since AD&D 15 years ago. 3E and 3.5E had come out, but because our group had invested so much money into AD&D we just stuck with it. So that had a lot to do with my reaction to seeing it. I actually like death saves to be honest. It adds some action and "thrill of victory, agony of defeat" theater while they are out of the action.While there’s some verisimilitude issues here it’s 6 of one, half dozen of the other issue. Players have more healing, DM deals more damage. Same with death saves, you keep them on the edge of their seats for survival regardless right? With death saves you can knock them to 0 HP every week, w/o you don’t kill them every week. Everyone has their style, so whatever you like, but these type of things can be balanced out easily.
I'll first go against the grain here and say I like level drain.![]()
I hate to break it to you, but he's probably gonna be undead soon.You are dead to me!
but why do we need to be 3rd or 8th level? why not just a master chief?Ramsey is 3rd level with Skill Focus (Profession: Chef), max ranks and an Int of 13. If he takes 10, he automatically succeeds at challenging tasks; with a sous chef and a team of line cooks using aid another, he can automatically succeed at DC25 tasks.
Even Jacques Pepin is only 8th level.
yeah a Hit being what you can take turning into "You can take 1d6 hits" turning into "tthis weapon/hero does 1d6 hits" just blew up into the HP inflated mess we have today where 200+ hp warriors are normal at level 15But my third* least favorite thing is probably when Mike Monard pressured Gygax into giving weapons variable damage in D&D.