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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4383755" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>After about 5 minutes, they stop being quite so fun. After about 5 hours, they get really annoying. </p><p></p><p>It's one thing if a player uses a little bit of color to magically warm his cup of tea at the end of a long cold march. And I've got nothing against the player deciding to heighten a dramatic moment with a little bit of magical flair, or tidying himself up with a bit of magical fastidiousness.</p><p></p><p>It's the pervasiveness of it that gets annoying such as when it isn't used at a dramatic moment. That combined with the cheap childish thrill seeking definately has a pre-teen quality to it. I mean look at that list again:</p><p></p><p>"Never speak, communicate only with this power" </p><p></p><p>After the first time you do this, is it cool? What about the fifth time you remind everyone that you are speaking in a ghostly sound sound that comes from somewhere else? If you met this person in real life, what would you think?</p><p></p><p>"Communicate with the nearby wildlife, the cool thing is those squirrels always agree with you"</p><p></p><p>Would this be even fun to play out the first time? How cool do you think the DM and the rest of the players would think this the fifth time?</p><p></p><p>"Squirrels not cool enough, make an illusion of a mouth on a stone wall and talk with it"</p><p></p><p>Fine, you talk to yourself... I mean, 'the wall'. Do you have something to contribute to the game or are you going to spend the whole time holding conversations with yourself?</p><p></p><p>"Allow the steak the drunk patron next to you is eating to start pleading for it's freedom"</p><p></p><p>While this sort of thing could concievably be funny with the right NPC in the right circumstance ('You don't want to do death sticks.'), the problem is that this sort of thing would only be appropriate once and at least in my experience the newly empowered mage player doesn't wait for the proper comic timing and tries to run the schtick into the ground.</p><p></p><p>"Embarrass rivals with all manor of sounds"</p><p></p><p>This is one of the first things my fellow 14 year old players tried. </p><p></p><p>'I try to make Lord Barvol fart!' *snicker* 'Now I want to make Lady Barvol fart'.</p><p></p><p>Is this really funny? Yes, there is probably a point in a story that calls for this sort of thing, but generally speaking you have to wait for it. It's not a humorous or interesting thing to do by default. Moreover, its the sort of juvenile thing that makes you look like an obnoxious git if you are caught, and frankly if you are living in a magical world and strange unexplainable things start happening, the first thing people are going to do is find the nearest wizard. </p><p></p><p>"Never hold your utensils, always animate them to feed you"</p><p></p><p>Could anything possibly scream 'obnoxious arrogant wizard geek' more clearly than that? If you met this person in real life, what would you think?</p><p> </p><p>"Embarrass rivals by shifting the food on their plate as they try to eat it"</p><p></p><p>Ok, forget I asked.</p><p></p><p>The point is, most of the times when such actions would actually add to the story rather than detract from it are pretty rare, and as such when the time glaringly calls for it having limited resources is fine. It's not like you are going to miss out on the oppurtunity if all it costs is a cantrip and it actually advances the story and provides you with some tangible benefit. </p><p></p><p>But when the magic costs you nothing, then the temptation is to go around showing off even though it doesn't advance the story. And that is just annoying.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 4383755, member: 4937"] After about 5 minutes, they stop being quite so fun. After about 5 hours, they get really annoying. It's one thing if a player uses a little bit of color to magically warm his cup of tea at the end of a long cold march. And I've got nothing against the player deciding to heighten a dramatic moment with a little bit of magical flair, or tidying himself up with a bit of magical fastidiousness. It's the pervasiveness of it that gets annoying such as when it isn't used at a dramatic moment. That combined with the cheap childish thrill seeking definately has a pre-teen quality to it. I mean look at that list again: "Never speak, communicate only with this power" After the first time you do this, is it cool? What about the fifth time you remind everyone that you are speaking in a ghostly sound sound that comes from somewhere else? If you met this person in real life, what would you think? "Communicate with the nearby wildlife, the cool thing is those squirrels always agree with you" Would this be even fun to play out the first time? How cool do you think the DM and the rest of the players would think this the fifth time? "Squirrels not cool enough, make an illusion of a mouth on a stone wall and talk with it" Fine, you talk to yourself... I mean, 'the wall'. Do you have something to contribute to the game or are you going to spend the whole time holding conversations with yourself? "Allow the steak the drunk patron next to you is eating to start pleading for it's freedom" While this sort of thing could concievably be funny with the right NPC in the right circumstance ('You don't want to do death sticks.'), the problem is that this sort of thing would only be appropriate once and at least in my experience the newly empowered mage player doesn't wait for the proper comic timing and tries to run the schtick into the ground. "Embarrass rivals with all manor of sounds" This is one of the first things my fellow 14 year old players tried. 'I try to make Lord Barvol fart!' *snicker* 'Now I want to make Lady Barvol fart'. Is this really funny? Yes, there is probably a point in a story that calls for this sort of thing, but generally speaking you have to wait for it. It's not a humorous or interesting thing to do by default. Moreover, its the sort of juvenile thing that makes you look like an obnoxious git if you are caught, and frankly if you are living in a magical world and strange unexplainable things start happening, the first thing people are going to do is find the nearest wizard. "Never hold your utensils, always animate them to feed you" Could anything possibly scream 'obnoxious arrogant wizard geek' more clearly than that? If you met this person in real life, what would you think? "Embarrass rivals by shifting the food on their plate as they try to eat it" Ok, forget I asked. The point is, most of the times when such actions would actually add to the story rather than detract from it are pretty rare, and as such when the time glaringly calls for it having limited resources is fine. It's not like you are going to miss out on the oppurtunity if all it costs is a cantrip and it actually advances the story and provides you with some tangible benefit. But when the magic costs you nothing, then the temptation is to go around showing off even though it doesn't advance the story. And that is just annoying. [/QUOTE]
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