tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910716361915088698.post982760557945055194..comments2019-01-29T22:57:29.481-08:00Comments on 5e World: Commentary on Dungeons & Dragons Next: An Open Letter To Monte CookMage-Ouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651538170347276809noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910716361915088698.post-38031569110874877812012-02-27T10:25:13.700-08:002012-02-27T10:25:13.700-08:00I like a lot of what Monte Cook has done for D&...I like a lot of what Monte Cook has done for D&D, and a lot of what he is planning to do sounds great, but I also was confused by his assertion that it is just the changes to play style that people don't like about high level play.<br />I played a lot of campaigns that made it into high levels in 3rd and 3.5, and I had no problem with moving into a style of play where the fate of entire worlds rested in our hands, and in the hands of the forces we commanded. I did have a problem with the fact that if you weren't a spellcaster, you became support for the spellcasters. The mechanics of the game simply didn't make your contributions to combat of anywhere near equal value, and good spell selection could extend that problem out of combat as well. (Hey rogue, can you sneak into that fortress and steal the crown jewels? Maybe, but the wizards could just turn invisible and ethereal and head straight in, using spells to avoid or remove traps better than I can, and then just teleport out with them.)<br />In addition, more and more of the game revolved entirely around the badly scaling saving throw mechanic. Stacked on top of that was the difficulty of a selection of spells that spanned dozens of books (with no good online compendium), and varied wildly in power and utility.<br />These flaws were not changes to play style, they were mechanics that didn't balance or play well. I feel that 4th edition made some pretty huge advances when it came to the viability to high level play, but it still has a lot of problems. I'd feel much more confident that Next will continue that advance if the designers were willing to recognize that those flaws exist.Doug Spauldingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910716361915088698.post-45676635259266170862012-02-27T07:54:39.688-08:002012-02-27T07:54:39.688-08:00Are you agreeing that play "changes" ins...Are you agreeing that play "changes" instead of breaking down or just that it breaks down differently than my example? :)<br /><br />I haven't seen a build where a lone 30th-level character can take Orcus from 1,525 hit points to zero in one shot. Are you saying a whole party? Does Orcus go to dead or does he just get stun-locked so they can mop up his hit points at their leisure? Further, can I assume that the party is piling on the daily attacks in order to achieve this one-shot? I was describing how more mundane combats play out as you use at-will attacks prior to reaching the Big Boss Battle.Mage-Ouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02651538170347276809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6910716361915088698.post-37781879692132079852012-02-27T04:51:41.326-08:002012-02-27T04:51:41.326-08:00The problem I think is that no one sees the averag...The problem I think is that no one sees the average drahonborn warlord at epic level. My problem is that at my table I have PCs that can one shot orcus.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16269521468406671292noreply@blogger.com