rampaging-poet wrote:shadzar wrote:
In the interest of "rules transparency" that people love today, where is the cap and when does the DM tell it to you since 2000?
rampaging-poet wrote:
3rd edition D&D didn't cap AC
shadzar wrote:if the left-handed can do things just as well as the right-handed, then why should a southpaw have to do things right-handed?
A more accurate comparison would be using a command line on a computer instead of a graphical user interface. The command line
can do anything the GUI can, and if you're already used to the command line you can navigate it well enough for your own purposes. However, GUIs are much more intuitive and easier to learn. Someone new to a computer program can generally learn a well-designed GUI faster than a similarly well-designed command line interface.
In 3rd edition, bigger numbers are always better. That little bit of consistency makes it easier to learn. BAB and ascending AC also reduces the number of steps required to resolve an attack roll, especially since addition is faster than subtraction. That makes using ascending AC in newly-designed games a no-brainer. It's not worth going back to convert all the existing material "just because," but there's no reason other than nostalgia for new material to use THAC0 either.
a problem is that the picture can say 1000 words, but not always does everyone know what those words mean, like Windows 8 is to the terrorist alert system, what the hell does level orange mean? it is no good if you cant remember all the little strangeness of the iconography. and still a GUI uses command lines interpreters anyway.
the whole "addition is faster than subtraction" shit never worked to well as an argument because cheap calculators have existed prior to WotC D&D editions. now with iPads, smart phones, etc. you just fondle the minus sign instead of the plus sign. it doesnt even take any math skills, just button mashing skills to do it. also with the whole Project Morningstar, and the fact that someone could make an attack app, you don't need to do anything but put in the things being used and let the app handle all that math for you. again a case of a GUI for basic math, so addition and subtraction doesnt mean shit.
the point is THAC0 is the same damn thing as BAB, and i cannot understand the fear of subtraction. just use a calculator like everyone was doing in the 70s. even when it required P&P instead of tablets and laptop/notebook computers, people didn't sit doing longhand addition and subtraction or using slide rules for this shit.
it is only a hangup and a non-existent problem since PEOPLE, the players are not doing the math, but a calculator is, either a device made solely for doing math or some other computing device.
how many people here play D&D or any other RPG and do the attack math with a pencil and paper?
then end result is you are still just comparing two numbers to find if your roll produced the bigger number. thus they are the same thing, even the math has been shown by a 3rd edition player to be the same math just with AC starting at 10 going up, not down. still just a number line.
they are functionally identical.