Eirikrautha
First Post
The only thing an RPG needs in order for all actions to be possible is a robust, but ideally easy to use set of core rules that the GM can use to adjudicate the results of the actions the players describe. Giving players codified options of things they can do using a more specific set of rules, such as a spell or a combat maneuver, does not prevent other players from performing actions with similar intended results using the core rules of the game. Just because the Battlemaster in 5e has a disarm maneuver doesn’t mean only Battlemasters can disarm people. Just because the Rogue has Sneak Attack doesn’t mean only Rogues can attack people’s weak points from a hidden position. People seem to draw these weird arbitrary lines where it’s ok for characters other than the Ranger to follow tracks, but for some reason if a Feat called “Whirlwind Attack” exists, nobody who doesn’t have it is allowed to spin around in a circle when they attack. It’s bizarre.
Ideally, that would be how it worked. But both organizationally and mechanically, it's not. I've benn at PFS tables at Cons where players were told outright, "You don't have X feat, so you can't do that." Maybe those GMs were "doing it wrong." But I've watched it happen, and I don't think its that rare. It becomes the expectation that, if a mechanical option is available that it will become the preferred method of doing that thing.
Your own examples support this. If "attack people’s weak points from a hidden position" is codified in the game rules as "do more damage" then only a Rogue gets sneak attack damage. If the game is balanced around the chance a Battlemaster has to disarm, then either you trivialize the BM's ability by giving everyone else the same chance to succeed, or the game mechanics numerically "persuade" others not to try because the numbers mean they have a radically lower chance of success (this was one serious problem with PF1's skill system). Either way, the build choices reduce the *viable* choices.
Of course, this is necessary in any RPG. The question is the extent. And that circles back around to my original point. The OP could tell very quickly whether the new PF would fit his balance of where player choice occurs,