It will Disintegrate if you overcome the HP. It's much more balanced like that and it makes sense a weakened target is easier to disintegrate.
I wouldn't expect old school save or die mechanics to return any time soon.
The most balanced D&D edition is D&D 4e. And is by far the worst. If something is cool, it should be in the game. Simple as that. Note that I an playing DDO at moment, doing the Temple of Elemental Evil quest and elementals uses tier 6 magic while my MC can only use tier 4 magic.
My first death with this char was to a "boss" who casted phantasmal killer, a OHK spell on 3e. And was my fault. I an entering in a place full of undead, I should have prepared myself.
[quote=SorcererVictor](...)Most players don't really think it's fair or fun to have their entire campaign ended by a single bad die roll, or having to reload their game multiple times because heir only option is to succeed a random chance roll, with no gradation or middle-ground. A DM who thinks it's fair or fun to levy save-or-dies agaisnt their party and risk complete and irretrievable character loss based on a single die roll, beginning form party level 7 or 8, just because, is also a pretty rotten DM.
A 5th level spell should not be able to one-shot any creature in existence for free. That's a ridiculous idea and a person who suggests that it should is being equally ridiculous.
You act as if there are no counter or protection against those spells. Deathward, a tier 4 spell can protect you from wail of the banshee, a tier 9 spell.
It's been years since I've played. The only thing I know about 5e comes from Baldur's Gate 3. But it sure does sound like DnD players have gotten soft.
Used to be, things like Power Word Kill and Disintegrate kept things exciting. When characters died, it was okay. A new character was made. Stories were told about the old character dying.
Well said. 5e characters are too durable.
If by 'soft' you mean 'generally more invested in the mental and emotional journey of their characters and more inclined towards immersed character play' than the highly disposable burner character style of play that was encouraged by older editions, then sure, call it that. It's a roleplaying game, and the more recent renaissance of D&D has focused more heavily on that - roleplaying - than on having to reroll a new character every few sessions and not really getting attached to any of them because you know you're going to have to reroll again in a few sessions time. To each their own; plenty of groups still play like that, and AL games are generally very min-maxed as well... but it's not the main pitch any more.
No, characters on old school D&D are humans. Sure, they are incredible powerful humans, can cast powerful magic, wield powerful magical items and so on, but still humans. Your lv 20 wizard on 2e will probably have around 40 hp. That means that a bear can mole him to death in a single round if he is caught by surprise without spells or anything supernatural to defend him. That makes me fell far more imersed into my char.
And make adventuring more fun, threatening and interesting.
When you finally reach mid to high levels, you fell acomplished because you saw a lot of other adventurers dying and failing to obtain that power.
Power Word: Kill is in particular is far more lethal in 5E than 3.5E - both auto-kills at 100 hp, but 5E is a lower HP game compared to 3.5E (where characters have far higher CON stats). Also, in 3.5E spell resistance can save you from it. Disintegrate does packs less of a punch, but it can also land far more in 5E compared to 3.5E due to the way saves work.
Actually 5e is far higher hp than 3.5e which is far higher hp than 2e.
Wizards hit dice per edition.
- 2e - D4 + maximum of 2 CON """mod""" till lv 9 then +1
- 3e - D4 + CON mod with no limit
- 5e - D6 + CON mod with + 5 limit
Monsters? Monsters has a lot of hp on 5e. Examples?
Iron golem - 18d10+30 (129 hp) on 3e VS 20d10+100 (210) hp on 5e
Kraken - 20d10+180 (290 hp) on 3e VS 27d20 + 189 (472) hp on 5e
BTW on 2e the hp values are even smaller.
