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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Core 4E vs. Essentials
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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7174109" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>I guess that's a way that you could do it, but it introduces a number of complications. First and foremost, when you declare that someone with a feat can do something cool, you're essentially saying that someone <em>without</em> the feat <em>can't</em> do that thing; and that's kind of lame, from an improvisational standpoint. Second, you're not establishing that they're any better at normal usage - the expert at arcane runes isn't any better at identifying them than anyone else, unless something weird is going on. Third, "making good stuff happen" can quickly get into the territory of the character being <em>lucky</em> rather than <em>skilled</em>; if the player can decide that a particular arcane rune belonged to whatever thing that the character happened to study and so it works a particular way, then in addition to controversial narrative-control stuff that's best avoided, it means the character just got lucky rather than them actually being more skilled. (Unless I'm mis-reading you on that last point.)</p><p></p><p>But the thing is, <em>all</em> of those issues can be avoided if you just a have feat called "Skill Focus: Arcana" that grants +5 to Arcana checks. Nobody is denied the ability to attempt something cool for not having the feat, even if the character who has this feat is more likely to succeed. The character is equally as better at mundane skill usage as in circumstantial ones. The character is actually <em>better</em> with Arcane Runes, rather than just being narrated into convenient situations. It's an elegant solution to providing that type of character customization, which unfortunately goes ignored because it's so straight-forward.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7174109, member: 6775031"] I guess that's a way that you could do it, but it introduces a number of complications. First and foremost, when you declare that someone with a feat can do something cool, you're essentially saying that someone [I]without[/I] the feat [I]can't[/I] do that thing; and that's kind of lame, from an improvisational standpoint. Second, you're not establishing that they're any better at normal usage - the expert at arcane runes isn't any better at identifying them than anyone else, unless something weird is going on. Third, "making good stuff happen" can quickly get into the territory of the character being [I]lucky[/I] rather than [I]skilled[/I]; if the player can decide that a particular arcane rune belonged to whatever thing that the character happened to study and so it works a particular way, then in addition to controversial narrative-control stuff that's best avoided, it means the character just got lucky rather than them actually being more skilled. (Unless I'm mis-reading you on that last point.) But the thing is, [I]all[/I] of those issues can be avoided if you just a have feat called "Skill Focus: Arcana" that grants +5 to Arcana checks. Nobody is denied the ability to attempt something cool for not having the feat, even if the character who has this feat is more likely to succeed. The character is equally as better at mundane skill usage as in circumstantial ones. The character is actually [I]better[/I] with Arcane Runes, rather than just being narrated into convenient situations. It's an elegant solution to providing that type of character customization, which unfortunately goes ignored because it's so straight-forward. [/QUOTE]
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