Since a combat round in D&D is explicitly 6 seconds long...

Since a combat round in D&D is explicitly 6 seconds long, why doesn't the system categorize actions by how many seconds they take?
That would allow more subdivisions for balancing different actions, while needing fewer definitions for new players to learn.

Because the increase in complexity isn't worth the gains, especially since the nominal six seconds is very, very abstract and non-specific in practice.

to prevent autists triumphantly flicking their Bic while taking a five-foot step in order to "prove" that they should get to take a full attack action while also using a wand

Making DnD more complex also narrows its appeal and therefore makes it less profitable which is something Wizards would be against

Because most people who play D&D aren't Autismotron 9000s with asperger grip, user

Have you seen how complex the rules for actions per turn already are?
To clarify, measuring actions in seconds would not ADD to the rules for standard actions, move actions, full-round actions, free actions, swift actions and immediate actions, but REPLACE all of those with a number of seconds.

I have and while DnD isn't exactly a rules light game, there are a lot of ways that DnD combat could benefit from a more complex combat system that wizards won't implement due to accessibility

Counting out the seconds would be way more complex than just remembering your actions. If you want 3.5's action economy to be simplified, look at how 4e or 5e did it (simply reducing the number of them) rather than introducing more math to keep track of.

It would make less sense, be even more finnicky and probably less balanced. There's a real real time action costs like that aren't a thing.

2nd edition did this with speed factors. Plays great when it's used, but it's so fiddly that no one does.

ITT: unintelligent people rationalize the continued use of a shit system

Pointing out that the alternative you're suggesting is worse doesn't mean we support the shitty original.

Agreed. Casting a spell should take 12 seconds. I mean, you try saying an ENTIRE PAGE of text (which is the bare minimum space a spell takes up) in six seconds. This means that casters would finally be balanced and we can have fun spells back, instead of the neutered bullshit that was introduced in 5e.

>Arguing for caster supremacy
>>/out/

That's not really fun to play though.

Getting less than one action per turn in combat fucking sucks. There's a reason you don't see it done very often, because it's pure anti-fun to have to stand around twiddling your thumbs while other people get to have fun. Smaller effects than can be used quickly and reliably are a much better model than ruining the pacing of your experience to make things bigger.

5 mE does DnD well just don't do it for a game that doesn't have a lot of the core DnDisms

You'll just have the GURPS combat. Might as well take the system.

>That's not really fun to play though.
"Fun" literally does not matter, as fun is (1) subjective, and (2) should not be considered a goal of RPGs. If fun is your goal, then you should not be playing an RPG, because there are so many things that require far less effort for far more fun. Drinking, ass-fucking, coke-snorting. Hell, fucking is free. And I'm pretty sure most people would agree that D&D is not better than sex. So...why play RPGs? There is more reason to play them than the stupid-ass instant gratification that OP wants. That's why D&D 5e has you level up to level 2 after the first session: normies and roasties want instant gratification. They want to level up after zero effort, just like in Diablo or Dark Scrolls or Skyrim or one of those other crap-ass games they play. That's why RPGs have been casualized to hell and back, to make them more "fun." But you know what? They aren't fun, for a huge percentage of the fanbase. And don't pretend it's a democracy. The kind of game they make is based on whatever latest demographic the jews who run the company want to pander to. "Muh traditions" is not the issue here: the issue is pussifying the games. Are you such a spineless faggot you can't even stand a challenge in a game that has no actual bearing on your real life? The DM is well within his rights to do this. If characters keep dying, maybe it's because their players are being retarded, and they should learn to stop being retarded. Generally speaking, the only way a person can die over and over in an RPG is if they are not only doing stupid things, but ignoring the advice of their comrades and doing Darwin-Award-tier shit to get killed off. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. That's how life works, and running an RPG like that makes it more engaging.

You're an idiot.

It's copypasta, although user is indeed an idiot.

this. If you want complexity, pic a different system. D&D is built around recreating cliche sword and sorcery heroic fantasy, it does a good job of that just the way it is. If you want more action economy without caster supremacy, go to GURPS


bait

That's what FATAL does.

>I mean, you try saying an ENTIRE PAGE of text (which is the bare minimum space a spell takes up)
Why are you assuming the vocal component of a spell is reading the entire spell?

>Fun is subjective
>Let me tell you all these things that i think are objectively fun and how they're better than the way you're having wrong-fun

I'd say kill yourself but I kind of want you to suffer.

Nope. Prove that "fun" has any value whatsoever as a metric for game design, then we can discuss who is the "idiot."

>objectively fun
I never said anything was objectively fun. I never said anything was fun. Fun is not the goal here. Fun is not an acceptable metric for good game design. If it were we could make a game where we all just suck each others dicks because that is more "fun" than an RPG usually is. There are loads of things more "fun" than an RPG, so why still play them? Well since you're the kind of cocksucker who thinks entirely in terms of his serotonin levels, I won't bother trying to explain it to you.

Ignore the troll.

.....are you sure about that user?

Good idea.

It's a thing from a gameplay side of things - you basically need to give people the ability to move every round, and to do some minor actions per round, and to attack every round for combat not to be a complete boring mess (and because you could do all of those things in the minute combat rounds took in AD&D), so you end up with this weird half-way house between "these events are happening in a fixed time frame so if you are tracking something outside of combat, here's how long it takes" and the JRPG turn based combat that D&D basically uses.

Distances are little less bad in that sense, but they can go weird very quickly too under the right circumstances - no one really gives a shit how far away someone is when casting magic missile, but PCs aren't allowed to look through a spyglass at a target a mile away and magic missile them so there's a stated "range".

>standard actions, move actions, full-round actions, free actions, swift actions and immediate actions
just
don't play
3.5