The Gaming Den

NineInchNall wrote: Also: Sandpaper Tango? Derp?

The implication seems pretty obvious -- two opponents trying to kill each other with sandpaper/papercuts/pinpricks/whatever.

hogarth wrote:

NineInchNall wrote: Also: Sandpaper Tango? Derp?

The implication seems pretty obvious -- two opponents trying to kill each other with sandpaper/papercuts/pinpricks/whatever.

Correct.

Sandpaper = low damage, high HP. So you're barely hurting em, but slowly grinding them down. Just like sandpaper. NO, NOT THE PAINT JOB!

Tango = dancing all over the mother fucking field together.

Aharon wrote:For example, one main complaint seems to be that 4th ed is just boring. But the game still has all the status conditions a 3rd ed wizard could cause (blinded, deafened, etc.). Anybody tried to emphasize on this, by giving them higher durations or something? (And I don't mean singular builds like the orbizard that are able to achieve that, more as a houserule.)

I prefer "server-side" fixes when I mess with an RPG, so I haven't tried extending PC-power durations yet. There are already encounter-long debuffs in the game (Spiritual Weapon, Lead the Attack etc. just looking at low-level PHB dailies), which do tend to be IWIN buttons, but only in the chess-endgame "I'm resigning because I know I'm totally boned but it would take too long to play it out" sense. You can't juice your damage versus, say, a blind opponent, without expending resources. (Power Attack still exists but it's nerfed, Sneak Attack is nerfed and is generally damage the rogue would be getting every round anyway, etc.)

Something condition-wise that I have fixed, however, is the tendency for the game to pass out large amounts of at-will/refreshable debuffs like daze to lots of creatures. "Turnabout is fair play" and everything, so I'm not saying the PCs should never be debuffed, but it seems the game is compensating for monsters being pretty much non-lethal pillow fighters, by at least letting them throw crappy status effects on you the whole combat. The game already runs slow due to inflated hp, so I'm not really sure how having the party take only one action every round, for the whole encounter, really does anything to increase excitement, tension, etc. I just delete anything that's an at-will daze/stun/blind or change it to a lesser effect.

Indeed. My players freak out so heavily when a Mad Wraith or other "mass daze no save" effect hits the table that I've learned to use the effect sparingly.

As devastating as the effect is, combat drags when everyone's perpetudazed, making it a subatomic line between challenging and fun.