Wednesday, September 1, 2021

How much defense is too much?

This is somewhat of a rant, I guess.

I exasperatedly exclaimed something like, "Oh for ****'s sake!" during our last session, as someone rolled a 13 and made a Parry by 2 . . . not counting any DB, without Retreat, and without any extenuating bonuses of any kind. Just a pure parry roll of 15 before all of the fun stuff that's piled on top of that - the PC also had a 2 DB shield, and a Shield spell of +2 or +3, and could potentially Retreat. Why the exclamantion? Just some general muttering about how dangerous the situation was. You know, followed by the revelation of a 98.1% of success and only a rule-required margin for failure or critical failure.

Honestly, I get why my players do the things they do - why they layer defensive buffs over high defenses over everything.

But still, as a GM, it's face-palm territory when people say their defenses aren't good and then you find out they have a 15 Parry, without any DB or Retreat, or say they're about to get overwhelmed and die when they're forced to fall back on Dodge-14 and can't get that all-too-important +3 for Retreat. It's the defense equivalent of poor-mouthing . . . woe is me, I only have a near maximal defense, not the maximum possibly allowed.

Like a 95.4% of success is too low, and only a 98.1% chance of success - on a guy who also has Luck and a pile of DR and high stats and additional bonuses to deflect any non-damage followup.

Anything that can potentially cause any harm get classed as "lethal." So monsters are put into two categories - harmless, or so dangerous they can only be fought with superior numbers, in a defensive posture, while buffed, with no possibility of allowing flanking attacks, with room to Retreat.

Personally I think the "we can't afford to get hit, because we can't afford any casualties" approach means excessive caution.

It also can feed an arms race. Massively layered defenses that cannot be reasonably dealt with means they must be unreasonably dealt with. A GM really has no choice besides, effectively, "I guess you all win" or ramping up the offensive power of foes and provide for effects that cannot be avoided. Otherwise it's just rolling dice to see which PC kills the enemy, and how long they take to die, without real challenge of potential failure.

Yet, again, this means a push towards caution. It further forces the game towards tactical combat considerations in all situations, since Retreat is held up as a requirement to survive and worries about denying a flank dominate discussions about what to do.

This is why I've mused a few times about hard skill caps, hard defense caps, and other bounded limitations. That way the arms race at least ends at some point.

But I'm not sure it would stop what drives me a little nutty about the whole thing - the excessive concern that any chance of failure means a high chance of failure, and describing anything less than maximal defenses as poor. One of my players can get a little smug about his high defenses, but at least he's owning the fact that he has them and that they're high. I just feel like a more reasonable acceptance of how defensively secure the PCs are, right out of the gate and then especially after they get more points and better gear would help. So would an acceptance that risk can be reduced but not minimized without costing some - perhaps most - of the risk-reward challenge that DF is meant to be. And I've said it before - people over-patch and they tend to hold up "without any casualties" as delve goals . . . and it costs a lot without getting the end-goal in return.

Just some thoughts.

7 comments:

  1. How do your players have fun? For me, risk is a reward. If there is no risk the game is boring. Being assured of success is the fastest way to turn my attention off while playing. Why do I need to pay attention when I can't lose? I enjoy the thrill of taking risks and winning against the odds. Do your players actually feel risk is unacceptable or do they just like to complain and aren't actually worried as their verbiage suggests?

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    1. Given the considerable graveyard there is clearly risk

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    2. There certainly is a lot of risk. And I don't blame them for layering up defenses . . . I just get exasperated that anything less than the maximum possible defenses is somehow "Warrior is about to die!" (obligatory Gauntlet reference.) I hear a lot of "Whew! I barely made it!" rolling against a 14 or 15, as if that's not vastly more likely than failure.

      It just feels like poor-mouthing, and I think the mindset leads to extreme caution. If you only feel safe with maximum defenses + luck + magical support + magical healing just in case, then you're always going to choose to do the least risky thing possible even when the game is about the most risky thing anyone in the entire world does for a living - plunder treasures from deadly monster-filled trap-lined dungeons.

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  2. I admit I tend to have enemies throw either tons of attacks, quite deceptive attacks, or both . . . So these active defenses don't seem over the top to me

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    1. They're not really over the top, but again, they're seen as rock-bottom minima. And if I can only threaten them by upping the ante, and yet even without upping the ante people feel worried about failure with a 15 or less . . . then upping the ante means encourage more of the caution I find leads to a very slow, risk-averse style of play.

      I joked - not inaccurately, I think - that someone had turned "Now is the time for heroes!" into "Which means, now is the time for carefully considered long-term risk-assessment and caution."

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    2. "Which means, now is the time for carefully considered long-term risk-assessment and caution."

      Sounds like someone wants to play Profits and Power Point Presentations, not D&DFRPG... :P

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    3. Well, I'm sure he'd be ready to commit to P&PPP after careful consideration, if it turned out to make the most sense.

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