ZombieRoboNinja said:
I think that siloing actually helps the DM here. If a balanced game should include all 3 pillars, then each class should have powers that speak to all three. (I'll note that currently anyone who plays a fighter or sorcerer is already "opting out" of exploration or social mechanics.) It's much easier for a combat-focused DM to ban backgrounds than to cherry-pick the feats to see which count as combat feats.
He wouldn't have to cherry-pick feats, he could just say "Don't bother taking a Specialty that doesn't help you in combat." I'm into your idea that feats shouldn't exist if they're not in a Specialty.
And I don't really think at anyone is opting out of exploration or social mechanics right now. Those mechanics are imbedded in the ability scores. A Fighter has a Charisma score like anyone else, and while they might not have a CHA as high as their STR or CON, they also might have a decent one that doesn't hurt them much. Sorcerers are already pretty good at social stuff, favoring CHA.
They're not quite as robust as the combat mechanics now, but it's early in the playtest, and combat seems to be Step 1.
I'm not yet persuaded that Specialties should be confined only to combat.
ZombieRoboNinja said:
I do hate the idea of focusing in one pillar, though. What's the goal of that - the bard gets to shine for an hour of courtly intrigue while the fighter player takes a bathroom break? The wizard consoles himself when he runs out of spells by saying, "At least I looked cool teleporting us in here!" I like your original point better - each character should take part in all three pillars. And I that end, every character should have combat powers (feats) as well as social and exploration powers (skills and traits). I'm all for adding more of the latter to the game, but IMO refusing to silo powers just means different players are dissatisfied with their characters at different times.
As far as I can tell, that's kind of what ability scores are for right now. As long as the game assumes a certain ability score modifier spread (-1 to +4 or +5 currently), they can balance the DC's within that range (DC's 9-15 ~ 50% chance). And even the Fighter with 8 Charisma has some chance of talking the guard's ear off (though they should probably aim for the low end of those DC's) and even the bard with the 8 Strength can swing a dagger (but, again, they should probably aim for the squishy folks in the back ranks) and even the Cleric with 8 Dex can sneak into the castle (though it's probably best if they wait for the guards to fall asleep, and maybe take off that armor).
Every character has this baseline capacity to contribute in each of the three pillars. They don't need much more than this.
Feats, skills, and backgrounds are all meant to be modular. Thus, they are things you can add into the game to augment something. Skills, for instance, gives you a higher granularity on what, exactly, your character is trained in. A background gives you an origin story and some minor bennie. A feat helps define how you do what you do by modifying your options.
None of those are necessarily limited to one pillar. You could have a skills system that gave you different ratings for weapon proficiencies (I'm +3 in Axes, but I'm not trained in swords!). You could have a background that helps you in combat ("As a weaponsmith, I have my own custom sword that gives me a +1 to attack rolls!"). You could have a feat that aided you in conversation with NPC's ("My Persuasive feat lets me gain advantage on Charisma checks when I'm making an offer to a friendly NPC!").
Limiting them to one pillar seems kind of unnecessary to me. There's nothing about the design space of a feat that suggests that it must be for combat, or about the design space of a skill that suggests it must be for exploration or about the design space of a background that suggests it must be for interaction. It's not inherent in the mechanics of the thing. So I'm not sure what you gain by that limitation.
You can still ban social stuff, be they feats, skills, or backgrounds, simply by choosing to ban social stuff. Advertise your game as a dungeon crawl and note that anyone who takes a background as a baker will summarily have that weak stuff completely ignored. You can also do the other way: say anyone who has a background that grants them a combat bonus isn't going to get to use that a whole lot in this game of royal intrigue.
You don't need to ban an entire category of design just because you're opting not to emphasize one of the pillars.
I also think it's key to note that having some minimum competency doesn't mean
having equal competency. Bards should excel in interaction, regardless of if you're using feats or skills or backgrounds, and maybe they'll comparatively suck at fighting (again). Maybe your rogue that's a tremendous explorer doesn't talk that good to others. That should be OK. Flattened math helps that, since you can have a -1 in something and still contribute. Not everyone needs to have +2 in Everything. It's OK to have a character with +1 Combat, +3 Exploration, +2 Interaction. Or, in NEXT's case so far, -1 Combat, +4 Exploration, +2 Interaction.