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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Why is the Vancian system still so popular?
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<blockquote data-quote="Eldritch_Lord" data-source="post: 5894586" data-attributes="member: 52073"><p>I completely agree with the dislike of the 1 minute melee round. I too didn't like how individual ranged attacks were individual attacks during a melee round but melee attacks were an abstract bunch of feints and retreats and wild swings and stuff. However, AD&D was also a lot more abstract in general than either 3e or 4e; I could much more easily suspend my disbelief about attacks per melee round because you couldn't do anything else <em>but</em> attack. If I were trying to perform any 3e combat maneuver or ToB maneuver or 4e exploit in AD&D it would really shatter my WSoD because it was a highly granular mechanic in an abstract system.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Because martial adepts don't have a hard limit on their maneuvers. Spend a round or two without using any maneuvers and you get them all back. So where the 4e fighter doesn't have a good explanation for why he can't use his maneuver again, the warblade just takes a 6-second breather (which can still include any other action besides using a maneuver, including attacks and movement) and a crusader takes a 12-second breather (same caveat) and he can re-use any maneuver he used before. As I've said before, there's a spectrum of believability from "Use X powers, each 1/day" and "Use X powers a total of X/day" one one end to "Use X powers a variable number of times per encounter" and similar towards the other end, and 4e powers are too far to the former end while ToB maneuvers are towards the more believable end.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>3e martial adepts don't work for the fatigue explanation, they work for the "openings in combat" explanation. Any mechanic to approximate battle fatigue would look nothing like a "use some number of times per encounter, recover with actions" system, and it really shouldn't. Even if a system isn't explicitly made to emulate one sort of explanation (e.g. hit points as meat, ToB maneuvers as openings in combat), if it emulates it well enough it can suffice, though obviously building in a flavor explanation is best.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Once again, if the fighter exploits were explicitly metagame and affected metagame things only, I wouldn't mind at all.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's not a purely metagame thing. Goblins can run 120 feet in 6 seconds. A 6th level barbarian with pounce can make 2 attacks on a charge and can charge 80 feet in 6 seconds. "From where you are standing now, is it possible for you to kill all four goblins before they run out of the [dungeon/canyon/etc.]?" is a question that that barbarian can answer purely with in-game knowledge: Yes, he can run and attack that fast, and if he strikes accurately enough he can down them all, because he knows he can charge that fast and he knows what he can do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Eldritch_Lord, post: 5894586, member: 52073"] I completely agree with the dislike of the 1 minute melee round. I too didn't like how individual ranged attacks were individual attacks during a melee round but melee attacks were an abstract bunch of feints and retreats and wild swings and stuff. However, AD&D was also a lot more abstract in general than either 3e or 4e; I could much more easily suspend my disbelief about attacks per melee round because you couldn't do anything else [I]but[/I] attack. If I were trying to perform any 3e combat maneuver or ToB maneuver or 4e exploit in AD&D it would really shatter my WSoD because it was a highly granular mechanic in an abstract system. Because martial adepts don't have a hard limit on their maneuvers. Spend a round or two without using any maneuvers and you get them all back. So where the 4e fighter doesn't have a good explanation for why he can't use his maneuver again, the warblade just takes a 6-second breather (which can still include any other action besides using a maneuver, including attacks and movement) and a crusader takes a 12-second breather (same caveat) and he can re-use any maneuver he used before. As I've said before, there's a spectrum of believability from "Use X powers, each 1/day" and "Use X powers a total of X/day" one one end to "Use X powers a variable number of times per encounter" and similar towards the other end, and 4e powers are too far to the former end while ToB maneuvers are towards the more believable end. 3e martial adepts don't work for the fatigue explanation, they work for the "openings in combat" explanation. Any mechanic to approximate battle fatigue would look nothing like a "use some number of times per encounter, recover with actions" system, and it really shouldn't. Even if a system isn't explicitly made to emulate one sort of explanation (e.g. hit points as meat, ToB maneuvers as openings in combat), if it emulates it well enough it can suffice, though obviously building in a flavor explanation is best. Once again, if the fighter exploits were explicitly metagame and affected metagame things only, I wouldn't mind at all. It's not a purely metagame thing. Goblins can run 120 feet in 6 seconds. A 6th level barbarian with pounce can make 2 attacks on a charge and can charge 80 feet in 6 seconds. "From where you are standing now, is it possible for you to kill all four goblins before they run out of the [dungeon/canyon/etc.]?" is a question that that barbarian can answer purely with in-game knowledge: Yes, he can run and attack that fast, and if he strikes accurately enough he can down them all, because he knows he can charge that fast and he knows what he can do. [/QUOTE]
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