Physical violence?
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3.5X Edition's Biggest Design Problem
Moderator: Moderators
Re: 3.5X Edition's Biggest Design Problem
Huh, that brings me to think...
...Why can't a fighter work like a spellcaster, with a list of manuvers/tactics/abilities like spells are?
-Crissa
Why not indeed.
In Naruto, even the 'nonmagical' hand-to-hand fighters have a variety of special moves that clearly broke the laws of physics. There isn't such a thing as a 'punch' or a 'sword slash' in Naruto; for example, Rock Lee kicks you so hard that you go sailing into the air (and being unable to properly defend yourself against iterative attacks) and Hyuga Neji disables your special moves at the same time he's punching you.
Most ninjas wouldn't be able to use these moves all day. There is a limited amount of Raikiri Kakashi can throw out before he gets tired and can't use it any more. He has to use some other move.
In One Piece, characters are built heavily around getting the most use out of basic or bizarre powers. Even the 'normal' humans in this world have super moves that they can only dish out a limited amount of times per encounter. In fact, there's an entire group of government agents who make heavy use of slight alterations to normal human feats to become superhuman; jumping twice in the air, running much faster than regular human beings, being able to inflict wounds equivalent to a bullet with a finger jab, etc. And furthermore, being nonmagical in no way makes these people inferior to people who ingest Devil Fruit. If anything, it eventually turns out to be an advantage in the long run (which is bad game design, but whatever).
Re: 3.5X Edition's Biggest Design Problem
I've always said that fighters should just be Sorcerers, either literally or figuratively.
You really can just take Sorcerer levels, write "Fighter" on your character sheet, and your world is 100% better. You don't even have to take crazy magic powers like Fireball (even though we know that Street Fighters(tm) all have Fireball.) If you take spells like Critical Strike, Wraithstrike, or Whirling Blade, you look like a dude going all Conan on people's asses. Toss in Still Spell(feat, rod, or some other version) for the ASF, and you can even run around in heavy armor and hit foolios with a Falchion of Falchioning. You can even go all ninja on people with Jump, Expeditious Retreat, and Spider Climb, or do any number of things that don't look overtly magical with pre-existing spells(charm an information broker with Suggestion, call on the spirit of your father to find the Man in the Black Mask a la Princess Bride with Locate Object, tame a savage beast with Charm Monster).
Now that we have the PHB II, even more options open up. Sorcerers can trade a familiar (which is bad) for spontaneous metamagic without the extra casting time (which is good). Heck, its not even hard to PrC yourself into martial weapon profs and armor profs without losing caster levels(even though you can just get weapons with the Skilled property and armors with no armor check penalty, so proficiencies are really just a flavor option).
The point is this: if we want to have a "balanced" character, we have to know what a character at level X can do. "Lefting and Righting" is just an extension of that idea, setting character power at "as powerful as you can be and still have stories told about you."
A truly balanced game has to give out level appropriate tactical options, and the only way to make that fun is that some options have to be "strong", "middling" and "weak" against other tactics.
For example, flying + ranged attacks are overpowing vs melee attacks, but only strong vs ranged attacks, middling vs entangling, weak vs stunning attacks(cuz you fall), and useless vs Time Stop and showing us that at any level with flying we can't have characters who only have melee atttacks or have access to Time Stop, but all the other tactics are viable at that level.
By setting up breakpoints of tactical options, you really can have characters who are fun to play and balanced, and no one wins because they are overpowering and no one loses because they are crippled.
The fun comes when you use your available tactics in such a way that is creative and flavorful. If you find that your current tactics are weak vs your enemy, you must flee and regroup or risk destruction, while other times you will have just the right tactic for the situation, setting yourself up for the star role of that battle. Other times, luck and quick thinking will win or lose the battle as the tactics of the enemy are well matched to your own, creating dramatic tension.
Heck, I've seen players recklessly rush into battle knowing that sneak attacks and spell buffing will easily win the day simply because its not fun to auto-win vs an enemy. Challenge is needed for the game to be fun, an the way to moderate challenge is to moderate tactrical options.
I mean, I've seen mounted charge builds that on-hit kill anything at thier CR, but never on an NPC. Players feel cheated when the battle is too easy regardless if they are the winner or the loser.
You really can just take Sorcerer levels, write "Fighter" on your character sheet, and your world is 100% better. You don't even have to take crazy magic powers like Fireball (even though we know that Street Fighters(tm) all have Fireball.) If you take spells like Critical Strike, Wraithstrike, or Whirling Blade, you look like a dude going all Conan on people's asses. Toss in Still Spell(feat, rod, or some other version) for the ASF, and you can even run around in heavy armor and hit foolios with a Falchion of Falchioning. You can even go all ninja on people with Jump, Expeditious Retreat, and Spider Climb, or do any number of things that don't look overtly magical with pre-existing spells(charm an information broker with Suggestion, call on the spirit of your father to find the Man in the Black Mask a la Princess Bride with Locate Object, tame a savage beast with Charm Monster).
Now that we have the PHB II, even more options open up. Sorcerers can trade a familiar (which is bad) for spontaneous metamagic without the extra casting time (which is good). Heck, its not even hard to PrC yourself into martial weapon profs and armor profs without losing caster levels(even though you can just get weapons with the Skilled property and armors with no armor check penalty, so proficiencies are really just a flavor option).
The point is this: if we want to have a "balanced" character, we have to know what a character at level X can do. "Lefting and Righting" is just an extension of that idea, setting character power at "as powerful as you can be and still have stories told about you."
A truly balanced game has to give out level appropriate tactical options, and the only way to make that fun is that some options have to be "strong", "middling" and "weak" against other tactics.
For example, flying + ranged attacks are overpowing vs melee attacks, but only strong vs ranged attacks, middling vs entangling, weak vs stunning attacks(cuz you fall), and useless vs Time Stop and showing us that at any level with flying we can't have characters who only have melee atttacks or have access to Time Stop, but all the other tactics are viable at that level.
By setting up breakpoints of tactical options, you really can have characters who are fun to play and balanced, and no one wins because they are overpowering and no one loses because they are crippled.
The fun comes when you use your available tactics in such a way that is creative and flavorful. If you find that your current tactics are weak vs your enemy, you must flee and regroup or risk destruction, while other times you will have just the right tactic for the situation, setting yourself up for the star role of that battle. Other times, luck and quick thinking will win or lose the battle as the tactics of the enemy are well matched to your own, creating dramatic tension.
Heck, I've seen players recklessly rush into battle knowing that sneak attacks and spell buffing will easily win the day simply because its not fun to auto-win vs an enemy. Challenge is needed for the game to be fun, an the way to moderate challenge is to moderate tactrical options.
I mean, I've seen mounted charge builds that on-hit kill anything at thier CR, but never on an NPC. Players feel cheated when the battle is too easy regardless if they are the winner or the loser.