The Dark explained it as best anyone could.
I’m not saying that the game isn’t more fun or more playable without Weapon v. Armor Class modifiers, but it’s combat system no longer makes as much sense.
D&D’s combat system was built on a foundation of historical medieval combat. Then the foundation was removed. The house still stood and was beautiful but the foundation wasn’t there. Here’s what I mean.
Steps of D&D Combat
- To determine if your attack hits, compare Weapon Type to Armor Type. Any hit is a kill against its target. All combatants are assumed to be of equal skill, so we don’t worry about differences in accuracy. And we don’t worry about the weapon’s damage, because any hit is a kill; all that matters is whether the weapon penetrates the armor.
- Certain figures, being heroic, fight as if they are more than one figure. They can take more than one hit before they are killed. They can also make more than one attack.
- It doesn’t seem realistic that every attack always kills. Let’s replace each kill with “1d6 damage” and allow a creature to take “1d6 hit points” for every man it represents.
- It doesn’t seem realistic that superior combatants aren’t more likely to hit than normal combatants. Let’s increase accuracy of attacks for high level combatants.
- This is getting complex. Let’s stop worrying about which weapons are better than which weapons against which armor.
- Now that we’re stopped worrying weapons v. armor, it doesn’t seem realistic that a dagger is just as effective as a two-handed sword. Let’s make daggers deal less and two-handed swords deal more.
- If two-handed swords deal more, shouldn’t an ogre’s club and a giant’s boulder deal a LOT more? Totally should!
- This is a lot of attacks dealing a lot of damage at high accuracy. Everybody should just get one attack per round, not one attack per hit die.
- How come a giant still has trouble hitting a man in a plate armor even though he could just smash through the armor?
10a. I don’t know, who cares, game on.
10b. You are totally right. Let’s invent Runequest/Rolemaster/GURPS.