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Why Balance is Bad
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<blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 6241850" data-attributes="member: 4936"><p>Hmm...at the risk of butting in, my reading of Kamikaze wasn't that he was complaining that the more open-ended skill challenge system of 4e was bad because it gave too much choice or somehow allowed too much flexibility of interpretation.</p><p></p><p>It was more an observation that the system allowed for a lot of blurring of concept and stepping-on of toes. If the barbarian can smite a dragon with one blow of his axe, and bring peace to warring nations by intimidating the two leaders into submission...why bother with a bard who cannot make war, but instead focuses on peace? In fact, his example seemed to complain that it was by and large not overly difficult for a person who had invested no resources at all into a skill to achieve the same results as someone who had invested everything into it.</p><p></p><p>The reasoning being that a doofus who rolls a 20 can, as a result of the binary 'pass/fail' system rolled into the skill challenge system, equal the the knowledge of a knowledgeable sage. </p><p></p><p>I don't necessarily see this as a problem myself, for the most part, since it can lead to moments of emergent comedy and allow a party otherwise unsuited to a challenge at least a chance for some success...but I can see where he's coming from. It can be frustrating to be outshined in one's specialty by a pair of dice rolls, especially if it happens with some frequency.</p><p></p><p>It might be nice if there were some tiered rewards for exceeding the minimum DC though. Like if you roll 5 higher than the DC you get 2 successes...or something. The details would need hammering, so as not to warp the system completely out of functionality. But it would give someone who'd invested in that ability the potential for superior results that cannot be replicated by mere happenstance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shayuri, post: 6241850, member: 4936"] Hmm...at the risk of butting in, my reading of Kamikaze wasn't that he was complaining that the more open-ended skill challenge system of 4e was bad because it gave too much choice or somehow allowed too much flexibility of interpretation. It was more an observation that the system allowed for a lot of blurring of concept and stepping-on of toes. If the barbarian can smite a dragon with one blow of his axe, and bring peace to warring nations by intimidating the two leaders into submission...why bother with a bard who cannot make war, but instead focuses on peace? In fact, his example seemed to complain that it was by and large not overly difficult for a person who had invested no resources at all into a skill to achieve the same results as someone who had invested everything into it. The reasoning being that a doofus who rolls a 20 can, as a result of the binary 'pass/fail' system rolled into the skill challenge system, equal the the knowledge of a knowledgeable sage. I don't necessarily see this as a problem myself, for the most part, since it can lead to moments of emergent comedy and allow a party otherwise unsuited to a challenge at least a chance for some success...but I can see where he's coming from. It can be frustrating to be outshined in one's specialty by a pair of dice rolls, especially if it happens with some frequency. It might be nice if there were some tiered rewards for exceeding the minimum DC though. Like if you roll 5 higher than the DC you get 2 successes...or something. The details would need hammering, so as not to warp the system completely out of functionality. But it would give someone who'd invested in that ability the potential for superior results that cannot be replicated by mere happenstance. [/QUOTE]
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