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[Very Long] Combat as Sport vs. Combat as War: a Key Difference in D&D Play Styles...
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7548930" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Yeah, I was always more of a 'play it smart' type as well, and thus in all pre-4e editions pretty much liked playing casters (though the challenge of playing an AD&D rogue or warrior can be interesting, for a while). Anyway, my experience with 3.x seems to differ from yours somewhat. I found that there were a lot of expectations about the tools PCs would have, plus general progression of difficulty in the 'math areas' which makes it HARD to mismatch by levels much. Again, 3e shares with classic D&D the trait that casters can 'nova' quite a bit, so that can help, but its still pretty tight. </p><p></p><p>I think we may have different definitions of 'works' when it comes to 4e. First I think you're applying a double standard. In AD&D if the monsters are hopelessly outclassed, that's FINE, but you expect 4e encounters to be finely balanced. So I would say that 4e handles weaker monsters vs party as well as any edition, the monsters just get curb stomped in all of them... OTOH 4e handles "party is outclassed" BETTER IMHO. There's a good solid system for how the PCs get out of dodge! (yes AD&D has a pursuit and evasion system, but its a pretty tough row to hoe when the monsters are a few levels higher than you, and it is a pretty clunky system in practice). I mean, you could claim that the optimum spread of levels is less in 4e, but it is actually more forgiving than you may be crediting, and at least the encounter budget system will help you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7548930, member: 82106"] Yeah, I was always more of a 'play it smart' type as well, and thus in all pre-4e editions pretty much liked playing casters (though the challenge of playing an AD&D rogue or warrior can be interesting, for a while). Anyway, my experience with 3.x seems to differ from yours somewhat. I found that there were a lot of expectations about the tools PCs would have, plus general progression of difficulty in the 'math areas' which makes it HARD to mismatch by levels much. Again, 3e shares with classic D&D the trait that casters can 'nova' quite a bit, so that can help, but its still pretty tight. I think we may have different definitions of 'works' when it comes to 4e. First I think you're applying a double standard. In AD&D if the monsters are hopelessly outclassed, that's FINE, but you expect 4e encounters to be finely balanced. So I would say that 4e handles weaker monsters vs party as well as any edition, the monsters just get curb stomped in all of them... OTOH 4e handles "party is outclassed" BETTER IMHO. There's a good solid system for how the PCs get out of dodge! (yes AD&D has a pursuit and evasion system, but its a pretty tough row to hoe when the monsters are a few levels higher than you, and it is a pretty clunky system in practice). I mean, you could claim that the optimum spread of levels is less in 4e, but it is actually more forgiving than you may be crediting, and at least the encounter budget system will help you. [/QUOTE]
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[Very Long] Combat as Sport vs. Combat as War: a Key Difference in D&D Play Styles...
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