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GM Thoughts: Meaningful Choice in Combat

I’ve reached the point in my OSR/NSR (I’m still figuring which one) journey that I’m contemplating cobbling together my own hack of Into the Odd. One of my design philosophies is ensuring there is meaningful choice in combat which for means ensuring there isn’t a “default” option for PCs; I’m trying to avoid the “Warlock casts Eldritch Blast” meme.

The Crux of the Problem, Opportunity Cost

As PCs grow in power, so too does the opportunity cost to take sub-optimal actions. In a combat with a mysterious lever, does the fighter forgo their multiattack to investigate the lever? What about the warlock firing off three Eldritch Blasts a turn? The advice out there is to telegraph the importance of the lever or even just telling the PCs. I think even with perfect knowledge, we all know the wizard is going to drop the Fireball on the group of skeletons rather than Mage Hand the lever.

So I feel that this naturally sets up an arms race between PC abilities and the impact of the environment. In the above example, the lever would have to open a trapdoor with an 80ft. fall to be on par with the Fireball. But at the deadliest level, 1st level, this isn’t as pronounced of a problem because the opportunity cost to pull the lever is just a single attack that has an OK to decent chance of hitting.

Avoiding the Arms Race

If the goal is to minimize the opportunity cost then the first step is to limit the power creep that has become associated with modern heroic TTRPGs. If you never reach a STR of 20 and proficiency bonuses don’t exist, then the math remains grounded and you don’t feel as bad for thinking outside the character sheet..

But players like progressing and getting new abilities, so removing leveling up is not what I want to do either. I think the solution for my hack is for upgrades to actually be side-grades. You are better at swinging your sword but ONLY this sword and once it breaks your upgrade is useless until the sword can be repaired. “Do I use the sword I specialized in to take care of this rabble or do I save it for a more serious threat in case it breaks?” You are presented with a choice of how to engage with the world as compared to just +1 damage with melee weapons.

So this can create the menu card of PC options but it’s key that none of them stick out as the best choice. Growing in power in this game doesn’t necessarily mean you can kill things faster but instead that you are equipped to handle more situations than you were previously. Hopefully, this minimizes the opportunity costs to not swing your greataxe while still maintaining a system for character growth.

My Recommendations

I am currently a player in a new campaign for D&D 2014 and the DM has stated that he wants a more old-school feel to it (he blames it on all the dungeon synth he has been listening to). The idea is that we have a slower leveling speed to minimize the power creep and instead get more in-world upgrades (titles, boons, etc.).

This is a good starting point but I would not allow Feats every 4th level but add them as upgrades (to compensate for the lack of levels). The preference would be for limited use Feats like Magic Initiate without the cantrips (or limitations on the cantrips), giving you a single 1st level spell slot each long rest. The weapon Feats like Sharpshooter becomes a meaningful choice again if you’re giving up any bonus to hit for the extra damage (and +10 damage now makes aiming for a round a meaningful choice too). Tying Feats to weapons can also give you interesting items that aren’t just a +1 longsword and represent a meaningful choice to hang on to this weapon for its ability or upgrade to something with better damage.

The spicier version of this is to remove the Sorcerer and Battlemaster subclass from the game and provide Metamagic and Maneuvers as upgrades to obtain in game (classes are removed so PCs of those classes don’t feel cheated that anyone can pick up their abilities). These both have limited resources so can increase PC power without altering the balance of the “normal” actions. I recognize that a balance is needed. Eventually the side-grades will pile up and the players will be looking at too many options. But also as these expendable resources pile up, the PCs’ abilities to use them for most rounds of the “adventuring day” defeats the purpose of keeping the random dungeon levers meaningful.

Last Thoughts

I’m still not decided on how this actually looks at the table or if this is just a good academic exercise. I imagine that attributes and health will slowly increase without a drawback (so just straight upgrades) and there may be some rewards that are more upgrade than side-grade because this can be a hard thing to define. Let me know your thoughts if you have had any success with keeping the dungeon levers meaningful past the first few character levels (tonightssession@gmail.com).