Picking Apart the 5E Seminar - Part II - Ending the THAC0 Escalation

I'm going to jump ahead for now (I'll go back up the list later) to address what I think is one of the more revealing facts revealed in the seminar (formatting sucks - I'm working form my iPad - I'll try and neaten up later).

ON MONSTERS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

Monte: Instead of the fighter getting a better and better attack bonus, he instead gets more options to do stuff as he goes up in level, and his attack bonus goes up at a very modest rate. I think it offers a better play experience that the orc/ogre can remain in the campaign, and people can know how the monster would work from a previous experience, but they remain a challenge for longer.

Jeremy: The Monsters are in the design teams hands now and we'll be moving to development in the next few weeks. What I can say about this goal that Monte is talking about is that we're working ot provide the DM with really good world building tools. And it's important to provide information about the orcs place in D&D while making sure that a Monster remains relevant as the characters level up. They're might be an orc shaman, an orc champion or whatever for higher levels, but we also want the basic orc to be relevant at higher levels. We want it to be really easy for the DM to open the Monster Manual and drop an orc or iconic monsters into the game.


Did you see Monte's comment about the to hit bonus for fighters going up gradually, while adding (attack) options as fighters level? Addressing the Illusion of THAC0 that I posted about last week.

If THAC0 doesn't climb at a fast rate, AC doesn't have to improve at a fast rate. So long as Monster THAC0 improves at a rate similar to Player THAC0, it removed the need for ever more powerful magic armor and weapons.

It also keeps the same monster as a viable threat for a longer level stretch than any of the previous editions.

In theory, it should also allow for a greater range of levels in the same party, as well as a greater / wider range of suitable levels for published adventures.

If they are slowing down THAC0, are they also slowing down spell acquisition by the casting classes?