Community

1.
On p 6 of the DnD Next_DM Guidelines.pdf it gives two different DCs to escape bonds depending on whether or not your using your Strength or your Dexterity.

I understand that D&D can be played as a simulation of reality. (I've been playing D&D for 21 years now)
I disagree that it is any easier to dextrously escape manacles than it is to physically bust them.

Also, I thought one of DnD Next's design goals was to value each Attribute equally. Poor Charisma has been a dump stat since 1978.

If each Attribute is supposed to have equal weight, shouldn't the DC for each Attribute be equal?

Not to mention that from the writers' points of view, it'd make game design so much easier...


2.
Many spells in DnD Next_How To Play.pdf give 1 minute as the duration for many spells cast in combat.

I don't understand how that is supposed to be used in the game.

Does "1 minute" count as "until the start of your next turn"? Or are we supposed to count off 10 turns, since a turn is 6 seconds long?

May 28, 2012 -- 3:47AM, DMaple wrote:

2. {snip} I've no interest in going back to tracking spell round to round like earlier editions. 

I agree. I think this "1 minute" duration thing is a problem. I see that in "the Round" paragraph on p9 of the DnD Next_How to Play.pdf they talk about durations of spells, but that's the only place I remember that particular description. I hope the "1 minute" thing is a typo.

May 28, 2012 -- 5:06AM, DMaple wrote:

Personally I think 1 minute spells are less of a problem than something like Crusader's Strike which lasts 1 hour, or 60 rounds. So it might last one fight, two or even three, but it means you need to track time between eact fight to be sure.

FYI there are 10 rounds per minute and 600 rounds per hour (not 60). I seriously doubt you'd ever need to track round by round for an hour, it's almost always going to be clear from what the players are doing whether or not it will take less than an hour or more than an hour for them to do it. For instance if as the DM you think it's only 45 minutes for them to explore an area then the spell is still up, but if you think it's 75 minutes, the spell is gone, etc.

The individual fights themselves you can assume last about a minute and then the players, unless they say otherwise, spend another few minutes recovering. So I agree that normally a spell which lasts one minute will last the entire combat unless the combat is being dragged on much longer than normal for some reason.


P.S. I do like 4e's system of spells lasting an encounter or 5 minutes by default.  The abstraction simplifies things nicely. But if DDNext goes with one minute spells instead of one encounter I can deal with that.

P.P.S. Thinking about it a little more maybe a two minute default duration makes more sense than a one minute duration. Two minutes is long enough that it always lasts an entire single combat, but short enough that it would almost never last two combats. Maybe I'll bring this up as another topic...

1: Giving abilities equal use is not that same as ablities being the same usefulness at all times. I'm pretty sure it would be much easier to dex your way out of a pair of handcuffs than to break them from the inside out. What this does is it says "dex is slightly better right now but you could also try strength" in another situation the positions my be reversed. Would you argue that 'for equality' the DC of breaking a door off its hinges should be the same as the DC for picking the lock holding it closed? What if a door of flimsy plywood is locked by an advanced lock? Should the strength guy get penalised because "each Attribute is supposed to have equal weight"? No. In that situation you kick the door down. On the other hand, the 3 inch thick solid stone door that is locked with a 2sp padlock should be far easier to dex through.

Giving abilities equal weight does not mean that they should be equaly useful in a given situation, what it means is that over the course of a session or campaign, a player who chose to prioritise charisma should have been about the same amount of use to the party as the player who chose to max out on strength. A lot of that is up to the DM (if he never puts ina social situation then cha is usually going to be worse) but I feel that DnDNext is heading in the right direction by eliminating reflex/will/fort saves and moving them to direct ability checks.

2: "Does "1 minute" count as "until the start of your next turn"?" I don't even understand how this was a question
A round is 6 seconds so there are 10 rounds in a minute
The spell lasts for 1 minute
In what possible understanding of the rules could you make 1 minute=6 seconds?
Also, what is the issue with counting rounds? You just take a pencil and some paper and put a tally on it when that character's turn rolls around. When you hit 10 it ends. Unless your group has a habit of having multiple 1 minute durations happening with overlapping timers, I don't see how this is an issue. It literally takes less time to do this than it will take your player to announce his action and take practically no concentration. By all means, houserule it to 'encounter' since most encounters last less than a minute and there are rarely two encounters within a minute but I would prefer a specific amount of time simply because it opens up more possibilities for how/when it is used

May 28, 2012 -- 7:59AM, TheWhite2086 wrote:

Also, what is the issue with counting rounds? You just take a pencil and some paper and put a tally on it when that character's turn rolls around. When you hit 10 it ends. Unless your group has a habit of having multiple 1 minute durations happening with overlapping timers, I don't see how this is an issue.

So far we have only got low level play but already we a cleric that could have to track crusader's strike, hold person, battle palsm and divine favour, then you've grease, light, mage hand, mirror image, shield (which last for 10 minutes real pain to track), shield of faith, silence and spirtual hammer, which could all need to be tracked often simultaneously.

Once you get to 5th level if they start introducing party buff spells, then it gets even worse.

From experience of from 1st through to 3rd Ed, people forget to tick off the rounds. Or they even forget to note which round it started in.