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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5635739" data-attributes="member: 82106">Eh, suffice it to say we have fundamentally different philosophies about how a game should work. I think formalizing too many things by making them 'qualities' and 'points' and whatnot actually degrades the flexibility of the game, makes it seem even more mechanical, and adds little concrete advantage.You don't have to 'reimagine the role of combat' to make it faster. You simply need to make it go faster. If it takes less hits to kill an enemy, there are less things to track, and there are clearer powers and less powers that are used more easily then it WILL be faster. Pure and simple. Yes, you can make combat faster by stating that "the enemy will retreat or surrender under conditions X, Y, or Z" but not every combat has secondary goals or such conditions and just an arbitrary statement that such should be so doesn't make those combats fit into the narrative or make sense to the players at the table. OFTEN the situation will be fight to the death, and FTTD needs to go fast and smooth too. So even supposing all your suggestions were implemented and work fine they don't solve the issue.I think the DMG could have a decent sized section about how to create interesting varieties of encounters in terms of how the encounter fits into the adventure etc, which would include a discussion of the things you're talking about, how to mechanically represent low morale, etc. It can provide several little sections, some of which can specify a few DCs like you've done, which is great. I'm all for that.And still, as far as the 'step it up' kind of things. What if I want my recurring villain to come back? If the player has a resource that says he can change that then we're into the whole DM messing with player resources etc. It may also just not make sense. I mean sure the player has to figure out how to make it make sense in the narrative, but just setting the scene properly seems to be enough to me "The bad guy runs back across the rickety bridge into the dark, do you want to follow after him?". That is the standard D&D way of doing it, which seems fine to me. Perhaps I've become set in my ways, but it has worked pretty well for all these years, lol.</blockquote>

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