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3 years ago ::
Jan 20, 2010 - 9:24PM
#481
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Date Joined:
Dec 27, 2008
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The variety of interesting choices inevitably lead the vast majority of the 3.X players I knew to play casters more and more often as their experience with the game increased, until eventually I think everyone was playing a full caster class (or one of those classes that broke the common conceits - Warlock, Tome of Battle classes, etc).
That was always my feeling as well. Casters got 3-4 new cool things to do every level. Non-casters got 1 new cool thing roughly every other level, and often those amounted to just another +1 on the stuff they were already doing. I basically saw non-casters as grogs in Ars Magicka. They're just there for atmosphere, so you know what the mundane saps can do and have a decent idea of just how awesome you are.
HOWEVER, I will say that I was shocked when 4e came out and I discovered through online discussions and DnD meetups that there was a whole class of players who just wanted to roll their d20s each round for their attacks and be done with their turn, and that these people found 4e to be stupidly complicated, time consuming, and pointlessly byzantine. They wanted to roll some dice and hang out with their friends, and all of these damn mechanics were just annoying to them. I do think it is a loss to the game that these people can no longer play and enjoy themselves, but ultimately no game can't be everything to everybody and I think this edition made the right choice in the players it chose to cater to.
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3 years ago ::
Jan 20, 2010 - 9:41PM
#482
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2009
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I think the problem that Xun (and not just Xun, lots and lots of other people, but he's the only one here right now) suffers from is a variation on the Perfect Solution Fallacy. If you have to have enemy spellcasters use Dispel Magic at least twice a day, every day, on the Cleric just to keep him on his toes, then the Cleric is breaking the game. If you have to toss in random Anti-Magic Circles all over the enemy dungeon just to ensure that the Wizard will not use Scrying / Invisibility / Levitation / Gaseous Form to out-scout the rogue, then the Wizard is breaking the game. If you have to consistently modify dungeon doors so that the Druid has to spend his Wildshapes to fit through them, just so he can't be in Wildshape 24 hours a day, then Druid is breaking the game.
If you have to do something every single adventure to keep certain characters in line with others, then those characters are too strong. Saying "Oh, just have someone cast Dispel Magic" or "Oh, just throw in some monsters with Blind/Tremor/Lifesense" or "Oh, just have the villian have 100% Scrying protection all the time somehow" is a fallacy, because without those special protections in place the Wizard or Druid or Cleric or whatever will bend the game balance over their knee and make it cry for its mama.
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