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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4199094" data-attributes="member: 32164">Not exactly. Besides, what on earth do you think they meant by saying they were "fixing the math" in Fourth Edition if not to address things like this?Assuming equal skills and abilities, the chance that one 10th-level fighter can hit another 10th-level fighter should be exactly the same as the chance that one 1st-level fighter can hit another 1st-level fighter. However, ignoring magic for a moment, that 10th-level fighter has a +5 to his AC vs. his 1st-level counterpart, which means he can wear no armor and hold his own against a 1st-level fighter in chain. However, even when that low-level fighter manages to get past the veteran's defenses, his blows just aren't likely to inflict serious injury. Winning the fight might take some of the old guy's energy, but in a heroic system like D&D, he's not in serious danger of dying. The system is designed this way. That's a flavor thing.It's far from a semantic quibble. In D&D, a 'miss' means they never hurt you. Because D&D also lacks fatigue rules of any kind, it also means it wasn't even a hard fight.I mention fatigue because in real combat, fatigue is VERY important. The best fighter in the world can be killed by a novice when he starts to get tired. When he's fresh, the novice has no chance. When he's not, he starts making mistakes, and even a novice has a chance to "take him out."Have you ever seen the damage system in Mutants & Masterminds? It's a great system, in a sense. You make a damage roll and see how badly you injure your opponent. The game has no hit points to speak of - just AC and the damage check. It's a great system for the same kind of cinematic action D&D handles, but it doesn't feel a thing like D&D. The real problem is that there's no sense of "accomplishment" as you go through a fight. Actually, it has a "death spiral" mechanic - something most D&D players hate.Ablative hit points work better than any other system that's been devised. Yes, you could make due with a damage system. But personally, it just doesn't feel like D&D to me.</blockquote>

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