Originally Posted by 1varangian
Originally Posted by Zenith
Originally Posted by andreasrylander
Hell yes, +1.

It's very frustrating that almost every round of every battle, even the environment attacks you, and there is zero defense. Goblins just SHOWERING you in "fire grenades" just seem ridiculous, for example. Also they sure do have lots of spells aswell. At the goblin camp, if a fight breaks out - BOOM, every surface is on fire, two of your characters have "hunter's mark" on them, and one gets a sleep spell on them and another gets color spray. All this before you even get to do anything.


But this is DnD, and why DnD's system is a failure. The saving/attack throw crap is garbage, and so is concentration.

Concentration from DnD is disabling you form properly setting up spell combos to mitigate the number of enemies in some fights. Case in point, the Githyanki Patrol fight. 50% or less chance to hit normally on each of them,3 of them use ranged attacks as well. Shadowheart is stuck casting Bless, and thanks to Concentration no other utility spell but Hold can be used (at a 60% success rate). Want to use your druid's faerie fire for betetr hit rates? Assuming it passes the pitiful 50% chance to land wasting a precious spell slot even if it does not land, you are then stuck in concentration with it.

So what happens if your druid lands faerie fire? He cannot use fog or darkness, he cannot use entangling vines, he cannot use barkskin, he cannot use spike growth. And most importantly, he won't be doing any damage because he cannot use moon beam or flame spehere or conjure flame blade, which for some ridiculous reason as a melee weapon that requires you to go in the thick of melee, breaks on concentration.

Ditto for your Wizard/Warlock. Need to cast Hex to do any damage worth a damn unless you spam magic missiles rank 2 with the necklace? Too bad, if you want to use fog, sleep, flame sphere, Tasha's, etc, you cannot use any of your other spells.

This RNG hit/miss system on top of concentration is leading to a lot more exploit and cheese than any of Larian's mechanisms, because the fact is the vast majority of videogame players do not want their battles to have an outcome down to the roll of a dice.

Concentration is not a Larianism, it's pure DnD sewer garbage. And it keeps 95% of the spells from being used, because what concentration does is it forces you to use the most universally applicable and powerful spell, and since spell slots are so limited and fights drag out so long thanks to missing half your hits, you run out of spell slots really quickly and the concentration mechanic makes it so you don't want to swap out concentration spells as needed because spell slot efficiency is so important.
Concentration was introduced exactly for the reason that you can't just storm through anything by expending enough spell slots. Earlier editions of D&D were ridiculous with the pre-buffing and it wasn't fun in any way. Just a tedious spellcasting sequence after every rest and a balance nightmare.

It's a great mechanic that makes you think and choose what to do, rather than just empty your whole arsenal with reckless abandon and win.

The Githyanki are level 5, you are level 4 at best in EA. They should be a problem. They can be Larian cheesed of course which makes talking about Concentration rather pointless before the exploits are addressed.

Prebuffing is not tedious at all if you just make buffs expire quickly out of combat. "You can't just storm through anything by just expending enough spell slots", great, so instead you have a roll of the dice fight you just reload to your previous save if the saving throws don't go your way or the enemy rolls first initiative and CC's half your team and half heals the rest. ABSOLUTE GARBAGE DESIGN.

I mean, what's the alternative, you crying about prebuffing, but instead what we have is playing every single class play like a ranger or rogue and scramble for advantage before every fight so they don't miss half the attacks against a force that outnumbers you and will outlast you through sheer numbers of spells? Disregard the Githyanki patrol, just take the goblin camp or the regular Underdark encounters. Playing your way, the fights basically come down to the roll of a dice. To hell with that. To hell with being 2 shot by a minotaur. To hell with eating a 20+ damage attack from the Horrors on 30 HP pool characters with a 50% chance to retaliate if you don't abuse elevation, backstab, or light sources. To hell with a 24 damage Iron Foot.

It doesn't make you think and choose what to do at all, it's a garbage mechanic that means my druid will never use any spell but Moonbeam, or Flame Sphere/Flame Blade if they nerf moonbeam, because there's no point ever where Faerie Fire or Barkskin is ever worth the spell slot and concentration over Moonbream or Flame Sphere's reveal+damage. Actually try to think about this, don't offer some empty platitude. Explain when in hell a cleric will not use bless over Bane, when a druid will use Entangling Vines over Web (which does the same and can be set on fire) or Moonbeam.

Every time I get these same naive retorts about Concentration making for smart choices. Absolute garbage argument. Increasing spell combination permutations makes for SMART choices, not limiting your spell usage to a single spell out of 15+ 95% of the time.

Last edited by Zenith; 28/03/21 09:53 PM.