Here is the fundamental difference between you and me I think. I do not believe that all styles of gameplay should be equally viable. In a tabletop game, if a group of level 1 adventurers attacked a dragon head on, would the GM have them win the fight? More likely the GM would have them all die a horrible death. Imo, some approaches to combat should be doomed to fail horribly. The thrill of overcoming all the failed attempts where tactics were insufficient for the fight is part of what makes challenging battles enjoyable to me.
That is not what I am saying. I agree that there should be unwinnable encounters and strategies. If we piss of a dragon at lvl 1 we deserve to die. But if we score strategies there should be different strategies that are really great to win one specific encounter and also some that are really bad. But not 1 that is really great, some that are so-and-so and a few that are really screwed. Variety is king, as you yourself later admit
Then adjust them, allow saves against the damage, limit them to certain items or even as you pointed out below, the "create bonfire" spell. Nobody here is saying surfaces have to remain exactly as they are, I am just saying I don't want them gone.
That is what I am arguing for. And tbh, most others, too. When I look here or on reddit, most people argue that the surfaces need to be redesigned. It is just that:
1. not the majority of encounters needs them, make them special
2. they should some from things that are already in the rules.
Incidentally the surfaces that work like in 5e do feel like the better ones. Web for example is pretty fine:
- you get a save every round
- you only lose movement is lost
- you can try to break the enemies concentration to lose it, too
- the enemies can sacrifice the web for a round of AoE fire
See, how great that works? You actually have options here that are more interesting as "better not walk in stuff", "Better sneak into position before combat starts". Also the web fire is more interesting as even the enemy has to calculate if restricting movement is better or doing a little bit AoE. All around this works so much better. A Bonfire can create similar scenarios, where you block doors with it for example.
Homogeneous balance is balance of the worst kind. It removes all of the flavor from a setting.
Depends. Not everyone should be as good in all things, I agree. But the overall things that someone is good in should be balanced. If not you just create strictly worse options, which are also rarely fun.
