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D&D 5E Discussion

deuxhero

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I know the codex is known as a hive of scum and villainy... But people who think 4e did anything right must be a new low.
Minions (enemies that die in a single hit because they're so disposable any more HP is just exceed book keeping) has been done successfully by a few other games. All the ones I can think of (Mutants and Masterminds, Savage Worlds) are wound based though. Warden (martial with some tactical ability that made allies fight harder) was a solid class concept and had they made a point of its abilities being "tactical" and not "leadership" and not tied it to 4E's "HP are morale and can thus be recovered with a pep talk" nonsense it could have stayed as a subclass of Fighter without issue. Bloodied is a basic keyword for "under half HP" and "under quarter HP", and while 4E didn't really do anything with it but use it as a requirement for certain abilities, making Bloodied into a universal condition with penalties to stop the "Monster with 1 HP is as deadly as it was with full HP" nonsense that makes spreading damage worthless would have been welcome in any system. 4E's shit ideas far outweighed its good ones, and even the good ideas had shit execution but to say it had nothing worth pillaging is wrong.
 

Caim

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I know the codex is known as a hive of scum and villainy... But people who think 4e did anything right must be a new low.
4e's biggest issue is the D&D on the cover. If it was a generic skirmish fantasy game it would have been received a whole lot better.
 

J1M

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May 14, 2008
Messages
14,739
I know the codex is known as a hive of scum and villainy... But people who think 4e did anything right must be a new low.
You sound so very, very, proud of never reading the 4e DMGs.
 
Last edited:

Raghar

Arcane
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Jul 16, 2009
Messages
24,065
A lot of our fights last 2-4 hours, I don't know how many rounds that is, but more. Enemies are hp-bloated.
Maybe you guys are just a bit on the slow side, mentally, or the party is composed of a bunch of cripples, or the DM is doing something wrong, like giving unreasonable hp or unreasonably high AC to your enemies. The system isnt designed for long fights, damage racks up really damn fast.

Any martial will be able to kill anything their level in a couple turns at most.
Well, if two party members are healing two downed party members, then enemies would hit them again... Wouldn't that prolong combat by 30 turns until one enemy would get critical miss and the combat would turn to 3 able to act and do damage vs 2 enemies...

Or perhaps enemies have high armor...

How many turns a person with a short sword would need to kill a person in a medium armor with 65 HP?
 

thesecret1

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Jun 30, 2019
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6,683
Well, if two party members are healing two downed party members, then enemies would hit them again... Wouldn't that prolong combat by 30 turns until one enemy would get critical miss and the combat would turn to 3 able to act and do damage vs 2 enemies...
how many fucking healing potions/spell slots/etc. do you have that you can keep ressing someone for 30 turns? Also if you actually did it, the person you are ressing might get up from the table and break your skull – imagine how many lingering injuries he'd get from that. Hell, with so many rolls, he'd be likely to get one of the really bad ones like losing an arm on an eye that you need a 7th-level spell to heal.
 
Vatnik
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Injuries are not in the rules. DND 5e doesn't attempt to simulate reality. It's kinda abstract in so many ways, it's annoying the fuck out of me.

For example, no assassination mechanics whatsoever. You can put a knife to someone's heart or neck, but there's no action that you could take to kill that person. Even in their sleep. Even if they're paralyzed. Nothing.

I'm disappointed. Injuries pale in comparison.
 

Raghar

Arcane
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Messages
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Injuries are not in the rules. DND 5e doesn't attempt to simulate reality. It's kinda abstract in so many ways, it's annoying the fuck out of me.

For example, no assassination mechanics whatsoever. You can put a knife to someone's heart or neck, but there's no action that you could take to kill that person. Even in their sleep. Even if they're paralyzed. Nothing.

I'm disappointed. Injuries pale in comparison.
If the dagger doesn't stay inside the heart, they might even survive.
 

Alex

Arcane
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
9,224
Location
São Paulo - Brasil
Injuries are not in the rules. DND 5e doesn't attempt to simulate reality. It's kinda abstract in so many ways, it's annoying the fuck out of me.

For example, no assassination mechanics whatsoever. You can put a knife to someone's heart or neck, but there's no action that you could take to kill that person. Even in their sleep. Even if they're paralyzed. Nothing.

I'm disappointed. Injuries pale in comparison.

Sometimes the DM is just supposed to be sensible rather than pretending to be a computer. If someone is paralysed and you cut their throat, they will usually be dead.
 

thesecret1

Arcane
Joined
Jun 30, 2019
Messages
6,683
Injuries are not in the rules
They're a variant rule that you can find in the DM manual. If you're running 5e and not using lingering injuries then dude, what are you even doing?

You can put a knife to someone's heart or neck, but there's no action that you could take to kill that person. Even in their sleep. Even if they're paralyzed. Nothing.
If your DM doesn't rule that as an auto-kill, then he's a bad DM. The rules are there chiefly for combat. In combat, the situation you describe would count as an attack against a helpless creature, which means you get advantage on your attack, and you'd deal a crit if you hit
 

Nortar

Arcane
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Sep 5, 2017
Messages
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Pathfinder: Wrath
You can put a knife to someone's heart or neck, but there's no action that you could take to kill that person. Even in their sleep. Even if they're paralyzed. Nothing.
Sometimes the DM is just supposed to be sensible rather than pretending to be a computer. If someone is paralysed and you cut their throat, they will usually be dead.

Does 5E not have the Coup De Grace action to finish off helpless characters?
If it does not, it should be homeruled right back.
 
Vatnik
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What should you buy for a warlock character with about 500g? Is there even anything useful at all? Considering the party is somewhat well rounded and can do everything anyway.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
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Oct 7, 2019
Messages
7,790
Injuries are not in the rules. DND 5e doesn't attempt to simulate reality. It's kinda abstract in so many ways, it's annoying the fuck out of me.

For example, no assassination mechanics whatsoever. You can put a knife to someone's heart or neck, but there's no action that you could take to kill that person. Even in their sleep. Even if they're paralyzed. Nothing.

I'm disappointed. Injuries pale in comparison.

5e is pretty lazy. Basically everything is DM fiat. If you manage to get a knife to some regular dude's heart or neck, a lot of DMs will rule any successful attack you make as an instant kill.

Of course, this doesn't mean shouting in combat "I'm going to aim this arrow straight at the dragon's heart" and then expect it to happen just because you rolled good.
 

Nortar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 5, 2017
Messages
1,486
Pathfinder: Wrath
What should you buy for a warlock character with about 500g? Is there even anything useful at all? Considering the party is somewhat well rounded and can do everything anyway.
If your character is not good aligned and not particulary sentimental, which I believe is not unusual for a walrock, it's always handy to have personal means of escape.
So if you don't really need (or want) anything, just start preparing your emergency exit package: a scroll of dimension door, a potion of invisibilty and a potion of flying.
 

Alex

Arcane
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
9,224
Location
São Paulo - Brasil
I wonder why 5E removed summoning spells from L1 spell list.

Probably balance concerns. I think it is a bit telling how the summoning spells that came after the PHB all work with pseudo-creatures, not matching any from the monster manual and with statistics directly dependant on spell level.
 

deuxhero

Arcane
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Jul 30, 2007
Messages
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Flowery Land
I've heard organized play in the past went out of its way to ban cheap summoning because it slowed play and it allowed casters to make another role less useful by sending random animals in first to trigger any traps (the innocuous Bag of Tricks made living greyhawk's ban list alongside a bunch of super broken 3.0 items). I'd imagine the fact that summoning spells don't really work for first level characters due to duration might also have been a factor.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
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It's D&D and I'll even excuse the nat20 nonsense.

Unironically better than most tables you'll find now.

Even the most insane stupid murderhobo is preferable to players who want to shop for clothes for three sessions straight.
 

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