tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790030420507335953.post5781281032528850766..comments2024-03-23T08:21:07.075-07:00Comments on Points of Light: Challenging MythsDavid Guyllhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16299128722345607123noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790030420507335953.post-19488987409975852722010-04-10T09:03:11.014-07:002010-04-10T09:03:11.014-07:00Wow. Havent looked at this article in a looong tim...Wow. Havent looked at this article in a looong time. I'll see what I can do about the green bars. ^_^<br /><br />To clarify, all of the above things are things that I disliked about past D&D editions. In 4E none of these things exist or work as they used to, and are much more conducive to actually challenging players.<br /><br />For example, most traps are visible, and none deny you XP if you dont notice and then disable it without triggering it AT ALL. Before if you hit a trap, it was triggered and that was that. Hence, they punch you in the dick and thats-that.<br /><br />I much prefer 4E traps. Anyone can detect them, not just classes with the trapfinding feature, and there are many more inherently supported options for disarming them then using Disable Device (for example, many allow Arcana and list defenses/hp to just smash the fucking thing).<br /><br />This is great because parties can react to them and try to devise various ways to handle them instead of just throwing the rogue at it and hoping that she doesnt botch a single skill check. Assuming they FIND it, of course.David Guyllhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16299128722345607123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1790030420507335953.post-43450363246037049022010-04-09T06:51:21.543-07:002010-04-09T06:51:21.543-07:00You should extend those green bar thingies a bit.
...You should extend those green bar thingies a bit.<br /><br />While I agree that traps aren't challenging, they are useful for DMs to try to shave off PC resources. Especially for DMs like me who don't like having 5-6 combat encounters every day for the purpose of attrition (a lot of DMs love their mook battles, I hate them). <br /><br />It's less time (and sanity) consuming for me to stick a guillotine that'll knock off a healing surge or two and a couple of cockpunchers hidden around a corner than it is to design more combat encounters I don't want to have around. So in that sense they are very useful to me. (At least back when I actually DMed 4e.)<br /><br />If D&D 4e wasn't designed around attrition, I'd be all for the utter removal of traps. Normally I find traps stupid and useless. In D&D 4e they let me have my "minimal but important encounters" approach without having to compensate for attrition (by say increasing everything's levels, which is in my opinion a terrible way to go).Dennis N. Santanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08558596510732768293noreply@blogger.com