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I guess if you throw an egregious amount of magical power at a problem it DOES solve it!

  • Ahdok@ttrpg.network
    hexagon
    ·
    10 months ago

    So... when you design a system to use "bounded accuracy" it can fall apart completely if you include a large number of stacking buffs.

    WotC's original idea was that the way you'd "buff" someone for a check would be to give advantage on it, and the options for "flat bonuses" (or die-roll bonuses) would be extremely limited... but in hindsight, if you have the right classes and a lot of prepwork, you can force a ~30 roll on nearly any check you care about.

    The biggest culprit is, as everyone knows, Pass Without Trace, but don's sleep on the Artificer ability Flash of Genius - it's incredibly impactful.

      • Ahdok@ttrpg.network
        hexagon
        ·
        10 months ago

        Well, by "fall apart" I mean that the purpose of a dice system is to introduce uncertainty. If you remove the uncertainty, then there's not much point rolling dice :)

        • sammytheman666@ttrpg.network
          ·
          10 months ago

          The game is a mixt between Monopoly and Chess. Where one is almost entirely luck based and one is almost luck less. There is luck and ways to orient it.

          Since its an hybrid system, it makes sense for players to invest so many resources to make a check a 100% guarantee.

          Well, 95 % at my table since I like to crit fail or crit success checks as long as its reasonnable with the player's consent.

          • Ahdok@ttrpg.network
            hexagon
            ·
            10 months ago

            Oh yes... This kind of thing is pretty okay when the scenario is one that DnD 5e is designed for - a day of adventuring with 10 encounters, or a dungeon crawl, or the like. At that point, burning a huge amount of resources on a single check has a real, significant cost to force that success. If you provide these kinds of challenges mixed into the expected scenario-design, then it works well. It means you can say "this matters enough to me to hamstring my later power"

            The problem mostly comes in when you're in situations like this - where you don't expect to need all your resources in the day, and burning through them let you force a success on the only check you care about.

            • sammytheman666@ttrpg.network
              ·
              10 months ago

              Recently no joke, we played a day in a game. We knew an attack was coming, and do you think me as a bard kept my resources for it ? Fuck no. I gave each of them to our mage that tried to catch the mega fish in the fishing competition that morning.

              He did it.

              It was an epic fishing competition :)

      • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        When people say this, they usually mean the story falls apart. Without struggle there’s no story. No one wants to hear the story of the white boy who lived without hardship with rich parents who made B’s and went to Yale and became a lawyer.

            • sammytheman666@ttrpg.network
              ·
              10 months ago

              So, the story of how you managed to accumulate every boon and favor and resources for that one die roll eyins the entire story...

              Yeah no.

    • gerusz@ttrpg.network
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      You can get something like 75-76 with the appropriate buffs.

      • Level 20 Rogue, expertise in Stealth, 22 DEX (Manual of Quickness of Action), nat 20 = 38
      • +Pass Without Trace = 48
      • +Bardic Inspiration from a similarly high-level Bard, max roll = 60
      • +Weal from a Stars Druid, max roll = 66
      • +Guidance from someone (maybe even the Stars Druid), max roll = 70
      • +Flash of Genius from the Artificer = 75 or 76 if they also read the appropriate +2 book.