I do enjoy me some Dungeons and Kobolds. I’ve probably played BG1 twice as often as 2 for that reason. I do like the process of taking a character from a wet behind the ears greenhorn to a weathered veteran, but there is something special about the early part of the adventure. Every encounter carries more risk and danger. I always hate when DMs decide to start an adventure at level 4 or 5. (...)
But 2e maintain lethality even on crazy high levels. Karsus, the strongest magician who ever existed? A insanely powerful lv 41 arcanist, the highest of all genius magicians, of the most magic advanced magical kingdom ever who casted his first spell while a baby and the unique guy who casted a 12th tier magic ever, had just 74 hp. A polar bear probably can kill him in one round if he is in a antimagic field and can't use his powerful spells/magical items/contingency/etc.
An single poisoned arrow CAN kill you on 2e at lv 6 depending on your character. 2e also gives way less ho per level up, mainly after lv 10.
Many DM's love to start at lv 5 mainly on 2e and 3.5e cuz there aren't much things that you can do at lv 1/2/3. Hell, Paladins can only start to cast spells on 2e at lv 9. Necromancer specialized wizards only able to raise skeletons on lv 9 too.
Hmmm, it has been a looooong time since I actually played AD&D 2E pen and paper, but in my recent 5E campaign where our party was all lvl 13/14 we were still having some pretty tense encounters. We had a boss fight where our tank (a half orc who is literally Santa Claus) was taken down to 2 HP in only two attacks (one was a really nasty crit) and the only reason we survived the encounter was because Santa was healed by electrical damage, and my lightning attuned monk/sorcerer was hiding behind him hitting him with shocking grasp over and over, or as like to call it, spanking Santa.
... God I love D&D.
So maybe it depends on the DM? I dunno. I’ve had campaigns that maintain the threat for the entire duration. I do get that 5E is a very different beast than 2E, and there is a lot of stuff that has made it easier, but I find it to be overall better designed. I’m having more fun with it than previous iterations.
If he goes down, he has 3 "saves" to get up. If was on 2e, "Santa Claus" would have far less hp. After lv 10, he would get little to no hp bonus. Even on "epic" high levels, most of your characters, martial guys included are on two digit hp range. On 2e, even your lv 20+ character can die in a single round. An squad of 9 crossbowmans with poisoned arrows can kill a lv 20 fighter relatively easy on 2e, if he is not wearing armor.
Most problems of tedious long encounters are lv 15+ on 5e. This is the main reason to why I don't wanna lv cap = 20. If a Elder Brain CR is 14, having a lv cap of 13 is fine. Taking a mindflayer ship is not that impossible for a mid level party
I hope Avowed has a third person camera. I never find 1st person more immersive. I feel more apart of a fictional world if I can see the character I’m playing as, visually place them in the setting. I’m hesitant about Microsoft taking control of any studio, but I’ve always maintained that Obsidian could do great things with proper funding, so we will see.
I strongly disagree. If the game gives the option, I an playing on first person.
My first RPG was Might & Magic VII - For Blood and Honor. The game was in first person.
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