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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7174306" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I don't think this is true at all.</p><p></p><p>If your character has Inspiration and has feat 'Legerdemain' which gives him a slight edge in slight of hand that isn't to say that anyone else cannot do slight of hand. It simply says he could leverage that with his Inspiration to do something more interesting. In the right favorable circumstances some other character without that feat might accomplish the same thing, but this guy can CREATE that circumstance (within reason, the player has to come up with some sort of narrative 'lamp shade' at the very least). </p><p></p><p></p><p>No, he WILL identify them (as long as he has Inspiration) when it matters to the player. Other character's won't. As to what benefits he gets on a routine basis, that's more variable, but due to the fact that this leveraging exists you don't HAVE to try to find some specific unique mechanic, it can be something like a static bonus applied to a fairly narrow category of situations. </p><p></p><p></p><p>So what? First I don't have an issue with 'narrative-control stuff', there's nothing there to BE avoided! Secondly, if a player wants to characterize his PC's accomplishments as partly or even entirely luck then that's fine with me. </p><p></p><p></p><p>And that's exactly the blandness that was being railed against here! I'm not against a feat that does that, IN MY SYSTEM, because it can be leveraged with Inspiration and thus inherently becomes something more interesting. That was my point. Now, as a matter of design principle I'd give it a better name, like "Desciple of the White Order" or something and thus create some more interesting 'hook potential' there. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It is ignored because its just number incrementation, and now every single character that is going to need to be good at arcana has to take the same feat. Granted, arcana may be a bit less central to most characters than 'hit harder with sword', so it isn't quite seen as the same degree of 'feat tax', but it has EXACTLY the same issue. </p><p></p><p>In essence what happens is these bland static bonus feats sort into two categories. Those which come up so often you cannot justify NOT taking them, and those which pertain to situations which come up too infrequently to really be worth expending a resource to acquire. There's likely some middle ground in there where something is frequently applicable but rarely critical, Arcana might be a good example, or 'rope use' or something like that. Usually you'll have one guy that picks each of the higher utility things in that group (2e NWPs generally worked this way) and its not bad, but designers cannot really avoid the other two categories.</p><p></p><p>Simply by adding the 'leveraging' mechanic every bland thing becomes a potential springboard for something interesting. In practice it adds a lot to a game, though clearly there are infinite varieties of preferences in games... </p><p></p><p>Anyway, this is a good fun topic, but I'm sure its pretty far off from the thread at this point! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7174306, member: 82106"] I don't think this is true at all. If your character has Inspiration and has feat 'Legerdemain' which gives him a slight edge in slight of hand that isn't to say that anyone else cannot do slight of hand. It simply says he could leverage that with his Inspiration to do something more interesting. In the right favorable circumstances some other character without that feat might accomplish the same thing, but this guy can CREATE that circumstance (within reason, the player has to come up with some sort of narrative 'lamp shade' at the very least). No, he WILL identify them (as long as he has Inspiration) when it matters to the player. Other character's won't. As to what benefits he gets on a routine basis, that's more variable, but due to the fact that this leveraging exists you don't HAVE to try to find some specific unique mechanic, it can be something like a static bonus applied to a fairly narrow category of situations. So what? First I don't have an issue with 'narrative-control stuff', there's nothing there to BE avoided! Secondly, if a player wants to characterize his PC's accomplishments as partly or even entirely luck then that's fine with me. And that's exactly the blandness that was being railed against here! I'm not against a feat that does that, IN MY SYSTEM, because it can be leveraged with Inspiration and thus inherently becomes something more interesting. That was my point. Now, as a matter of design principle I'd give it a better name, like "Desciple of the White Order" or something and thus create some more interesting 'hook potential' there. It is ignored because its just number incrementation, and now every single character that is going to need to be good at arcana has to take the same feat. Granted, arcana may be a bit less central to most characters than 'hit harder with sword', so it isn't quite seen as the same degree of 'feat tax', but it has EXACTLY the same issue. In essence what happens is these bland static bonus feats sort into two categories. Those which come up so often you cannot justify NOT taking them, and those which pertain to situations which come up too infrequently to really be worth expending a resource to acquire. There's likely some middle ground in there where something is frequently applicable but rarely critical, Arcana might be a good example, or 'rope use' or something like that. Usually you'll have one guy that picks each of the higher utility things in that group (2e NWPs generally worked this way) and its not bad, but designers cannot really avoid the other two categories. Simply by adding the 'leveraging' mechanic every bland thing becomes a potential springboard for something interesting. In practice it adds a lot to a game, though clearly there are infinite varieties of preferences in games... Anyway, this is a good fun topic, but I'm sure its pretty far off from the thread at this point! ;) [/QUOTE]
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