Okay good to hear. I've long since stopped caring about writers and such just so long as the base system is something I can work with. I picked up a starter box for Zweihander for cheap and wanted to make sure it could be worth it before wrestling with it.
It makes sense for certain types of boss fight scenarios. But a lot of it can also be accomplished with giving your BBEG actual tools to use, and of course a larger HP pool. Have him try to use a buff mid-fight, if the party can stop him from chugging a potion then great. Have a large enough map where things can be a running battle and make sure the BBEG has movement abilities to use so he's not just stuck with a couple melee party members in his face for the entire combat. Give the BBEG a pocket healer off to the side that needs to be dealt with that isn't just another mook running screaming straight into the swords of the party. Give the BBEG traps to trigger(allow the party a chance to notice them of course and maybe even use some against him). But all of that can be done without tacking on another system, it just requires making the character sheet for this BBEG worth a shit along with the map, which a lot of modern game systems just aren't capable of doing with their base rules... because they generally want to allow the party to roll dice for an hour and then clap at a guaranteed happy ending.
I agree with the idea of a bbeg putting up multiple fortification advantages and fighting/maneuvering tactically. My only argument is sometimes the Mike Tyson principle comes into play and taking a hit to the jaw just results in a stunlock. Even if the BBEG has major parry/resist stun bonuses, it can still be upended with an incredibly bad roll of the dice. This is especially true in systems that have autohit and autofail mechanics on the nat1/nat20 or a similar mechanic. I like the fact that the BBEG is not just planning on a stationary slug fest. The proposed idea is just an insurance against extreme outliers. It is similarly disappointing when a well laid player plan is upended by Poe's Law or if a well laid BBEG plan is upended by Poe's Law. My mechanic only offers Poe's Law insurance. Then again, Poe's Law is real, so arguments for and against it exist.
True. Life ain't fair. I already have a copious amounts of safeguards and nerfing going on, no need to compound it too excessively. I'm of a mixed mind on my own idea, as I generally prefer grounded threats to Mary Sue tales, but at the same time, I sometimes want the climactic battle to play out like a movie, with a lot of give and take, swings of momentum and dialogue exchanges, all of which do not mirror realism in the slightest when the stakes are "who gets stabbed and who walks away?" 5e obviously takes this to the extreme with the "you can be hit for 40 damage, knocked to the floor, healed for one damage and be up and swinging in the next round" bullshit. Death saving throws and such a HUGE safety net from true death (which theoretically only applies to PCs, but this should be disregarded) is nerfed beyond belief. My only defense for mine is that it is transparent and mutually beneficial and only applies in a very select setting, if desired. I've run this in my mind a million times wondering if it is more fun to do a death race or an extended showdown. The death race is more realistic, but the extended showdown allows for more twists and turns.
I suppose in one way this is still realistic to the games rules. One round in newer d20 games is 6 seconds so 10 of those is a minute, this means 10 dagger stabs; so ultimately 50 stabs averaging 2 damage could let some peasant kill a heroic pc while he is bound and gagged without his armor.
Also depending on the system the peasant would just coup de grace instead, then there's a critical and a fort save with each stab. It might actually make a good scene with some scrawny guy with a bowl cut trying to stab Komdor in various vital spots and having to fight to get through PURE MUSCLE. Fort saves are always a 1 in 20 too so you're at the edge of your seat for each stab. Not realistic, exactly, but definitely in the realm of Conan comic book cool guy moments.
I almost always did some form of this for chargen. Like in AD&D you'd pick your class first, and get a pool of 6d6 for your main stat and 4 or 5 for the rest. And even then if you got a really shitty main stat roll I'd throw it out and so you'd nearly be guaranteed 16-18 in your main stat.
D20 does fine for "roll to hit a thing." I like a little more granularity for other things, though. "Roll to hack the Pentagon using quantum electrodynamics" for instance.
While that's definitely true, the irony is they get more and more powerful while doing this. Since there's no method of restoring sanity, and you're inevitably going to die, the most powerful characters are those about to do either of those things, and they've probably been collecting the very eldritch lore (and spells) that have driven them to the verge of insanity.
Counterpoint: You're the GM. I desire to play a STR 14 fighter (or whatever the system equivalent is) who is keenly aware that he is often at a physical disadvantage compared to his adversaries and am constantly motivated to close this gap by way of skill and strategy. I take on any reasonable challenge to sharpen my skills and am merely playing the hand I am dealt. I am not a weakling, I am in the upper quartile of human physical ability, but I am far from a paragon. Any time I intend to press the engagement in lethal combat, I have to go the extra mile to do the prep work to give myself the advantage that my physique does not. In the event I am taken by surprise, I am at a disadvantage against my attacker forcing me to fight my battle by way of footwork more than armwork. I travel with a group because I am fully aware that I am just a shade above mediocre in terms of raw power. Do you reject or accept this character concept?
Lmao even in woke D&D niggers are thieving criminals. How very progressive.
I accept it but even so, I'd want the player to accept it, too, and offer a trade-off, or some perk in return for accepting such a shitty roll. I'm okay with RNG in the actual game but I expect heroes to start out heroes, even if they're starting out fighting rats and cats and bats instead of trolls, giants, demi-liches, etc.
Proposed tradeoff for reduced offense and reduced damage output, a constant +1 or +2 to all defense rolls with enhanced defense if I forfeit one offensive action that round. Any time I forfeit a round's attack, the attack roll on the subsequent round gets a substantial attack bonus and a modest damage bonus. By spending a round to observe enemy attack patterns, the subsequent round has enhanced attack and damage output. This trades offense for defense. However, limiting damage output to every other round drastically diminishes average damage output over time, meaning my primary contribution is one of distraction for other players to capitalize on. Perhaps a taunt ability during a defensive round to potentially gain a psychological effect on the opponent, reducing his/her offense/defense marginally. Effectively, this battle stance would have an equivalent trade-off to reduced damage output. The weakness is that if the enemy is smart, they'll just prioritize another target.
That's my general problem with buffs/debuffs in general as a thing. In combat round oriented games, you're sacrificing a first round attack causing actual damage for a (potential) future advantage, meaning before you even get to exploit it, every enemy has already attacked and caused damage.
After my own mind.
When did he troon out?
No troonery, but he was indeed delighted that corporate culture was becoming increasingly woke. His wife wears the pants, so perhaps that is troon adjacency??
Woke D&D writing niggers is unironically more racist than the whole making the orcs the Mexicans in universe thing. Disney woke proud family reboot the same way.
I recently saw some magazine in the checkout line at CVS touting Dungeons & Dragons as some social phenomenon. I seem to remember pop media at the time mindlessly adopting "D&D gets kids to kill themselves" and other bullshit.