No, I don't care that 'it's more book keeping'; when 5e has kineticists, then we can talk.
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
48 points (87.5% liked)
RPGMemes
10319 readers
245 users here now
Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Well, no, not really. The whole point of bounded accuracy is that it limits the bonuses you add to dice (all dice, so yes damage is constrained by it) so the rolls matter more, and choices that allow you to gain advantage, change damage types, exploit weaknesses, even reroll low damage are all included already. What you mean is that more powerful choices would allow you to make mechanically stronger characters, which is just a tautology - the reason for the limitations on the choices is bounded accuracy, so new choices that were added would still be limited by it.
That's not what bounded accuracy is. Bounded accuracy is only the rule (guideline, really) that you'll never add more than a fixed value (+20, I think) to a d20 roll. It is not about damage, HP, or how many d20s you roll.
HP and damage are free to scale, but the d20 modifiers are not.
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Understanding_Bounded_Accuracy_(5e_Guideline) is a good summary. The developer's own words section is also detailed.
Ok, yeah, I guess its not the point, but as your article notes among all the things it isn't intended to do, it has the same effect. It's still what limits the effects of choices, rather than the number of them.
It limits some choices. It limits things that give you a bonus to your d20 roll. There's nothing about it that prevents other vertical growth or any horizontal growth.
You could give players a special feat every level, for example, chosen from stuff that's like "Roll deception vs their passive wisdom. If you succeed, their dexterity becomes the lower of 8 and the current value, and they are vulnerable to sneak attack."
Nothing about bounded accuracy prevents that. The fact that you don't get to pick stuff like that very often is the limiting factor on making powerful, differentiated, characters.