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  1. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    The people who made the Indy movies are trying to entertain an audience. I'm just trying to keep my character alive. Here, the "That was it?" would be immediately followed by "YEEESSS!!!" and a cheer.
  2. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    If you become completely disengaged when your character isn't or can't be involved, as opposed to staying engaged and entertained by what's happening even though you're not actively participating, that's entirely your choice. It's not the fault of the game designers. TV shows are randomly...
  3. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    Perhaps and understandably unclear in my post to which you refer, I was speaking about the game (both at-table and in-character) rather than the real world. @billd91 seems to have read me bang-on. "You don't get to play any more" is Chick-level hyperbole. This isn't Black Leaf dying and her...
  4. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    I disagree with the bolded, in that a player can decide going in whether or not it's going to be fun no matter what the game or system or situation may be. It often depends on the players out-of-game mood at the time. A player in a good mood who decides before the session "I'm going to make...
  5. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    That's our fundamental disagreement, as I say that when the game state denies your involvement for however long then so be it. And periodically-denied involvement is a built-in fact of the game state, sometimes inflicted by the opposition (usually as an effect that takes you out of combat), and...
  6. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    "Life isn't fair." gets from me the response "Deal with it." There's always going to be times when not everyone is involved at once: --- a character gets taken out early in a combat (held, webbed, slept, killed, petrified, polymorphed into a toad, whatever) --- the party splits, intentionally...
  7. Lanefan

    D&D General How often do you use or encounter Dungeons and/or Dragons in your games?

    Dungeons: constantly. Dragons: not so much. Around here, sometimes the biggest obstacle to play is food/snack preparation and consumption, leading to the alternate game name "Feasts and Foodies".
  8. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    Given my druthers I'd get rid of spell concentration as a game mechanic entirely (other than for a very few spells, all of them non-passive illusions) and go back to spells having fixed durations. I'm of the mindset that if I can hit you with something like a Hold Person and get through your...
  9. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    Not at all. Sure the lower-level parties might never get access to them, but their higher-level opponents do... :) Spells: they're not just for PCs any more.
  10. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    I wouldn't! I and the party would hail it as an easier-than-expected victory, maybe even an upset against the odds, cheer, and happily move on. And sometimes, the big boss is going to totally nerf you.
  11. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    So if they can't do damage and they can't cast save-or-suck (which includes anti-buffs), what's left? Buffing allies? Boring boring boring. Divinations? Should be doing that before combat, not during. Summoning? Yeah, let's make this long combat take longer by adding more idiots to the mix...
  12. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    All this does in principle is nerf lockdown spells even more, to the point of what's the point? Sorry, but lockdown is and should be just that: lockdown. You're out of action, completely vulnerable, and dead unless your allies can carry the day.
  13. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    That was often my strategy as well, with a healthy dose of milling so I could run the opponent out of cards. Didn't work very often, but man was it ever satisfying when it did! (yes, I was nasty to play against 'cause I loved drawing out the opponent's agony if s/he didn't just concede) But...
  14. Lanefan

    D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

    I'm fine with spells that break the combat system and do things other than straight h.p. damage, even if-when those spells become I-win buttons. Even as a player who likes playing blast-mages, straight h.p. damage is boring; 1e redeems this by having the targets' items have to save if the...
  15. Lanefan

    D&D General Ben Riggs interviews Fred Hicks and Cam Banks, then shares WotC sales data.

    And in case someone hasn't already mentioned this, those things are themselves largely recycled from 1e (stronghold rules) and 2e (most of the Birthright setting). Still nice to see WotC bringing this element back into the game, though.
  16. Lanefan

    D&D General Ben Riggs interviews Fred Hicks and Cam Banks, then shares WotC sales data.

    Take cars. They achieved their basic form and function by around 1920 if not sooner, and from then until about 2005 all we saw were incremental innovations and tweaks which in aggregate a) made a 2005 car immensely different than a 1920 car and b) still recognizable as a car both externally and...
  17. Lanefan

    D&D General Ben Riggs interviews Fred Hicks and Cam Banks, then shares WotC sales data.

    Or (numbers made up as I can't be arsed to haul out the MM right now): "Dire apes (3), HD 5, att. 2 (fist-fist), dmg. 2d6-2d6, SA rend for 3d8 if both fists hit same target in same round, SD fearless, SQ strength 18, HP 35 each" There. Two lines of text and now I don't have to reference the...
  18. Lanefan

    D&D General Ben Riggs interviews Fred Hicks and Cam Banks, then shares WotC sales data.

    Be careful with the "us" and "we" here - I too would love to see a new D&D edition, but I suspect the new version I'd like to see would be light-years different from the new version you'd like to see.
  19. Lanefan

    D&D General Ben Riggs interviews Fred Hicks and Cam Banks, then shares WotC sales data.

    I don't think the delve format was rejected as being non-innovative. Instead, it was rejected because it failed in achieving its goal of making modules easier to run. Nor IME can 95+% of any other module cartographers out there. I feel your pain on this one. I can live without ceiling...
  20. Lanefan

    D&D General Ben Riggs interviews Fred Hicks and Cam Banks, then shares WotC sales data.

    Adventures are the lyrics. The rules are the instruments. APs are just longer lyrics. The people at the table are the band, with the DM as either the drummer (setting the tempo and letting the players call the tune) or the lead vocalist (in a more railroad-y type of game). Advice videos are...
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