BryonD
Hero
But, when the mechanics basically tell anyone who isn't highly skilled in X to sit down and watch, that's bad design.
In the games the way I run them the mechanics never tell anyone to do anything.
If a stereotypical high level rogue and a stereotypical high level paladin come to a tall smooth wall and the rogue begins to climb the wall and so the mechanics in turn say that the paladin should also be able to climb the wall then that is simply "wrong". I'll even go so far as to say it is objectively wrong. Yes, you can say that you LOVE it that way therefore it is purely subjective and thus any other preference is equally subjective.
But if you were to forget about games a describe to 10,000 completely random people character concept of the paladin and the rogue and then ask them if both, either, or neither should be able to climb tall smooth walls you will get a overwhelming consensus that the rogue climbing is right and the paladin climbing is wrong. And mechanics which are designed to contradict these fundamental ideas are bad design.
Now, if your DM sucks he may very well say to the paladin, you can't climb the wall so go sit down and watch. But that isn't the mechanics speaking. That's the DM.
In my games characters are constantly running into situations in which they are not highly skilled and some other character is. And neither I nor the mechanics would be swayed by sulking. And there is no issue with sitting down and watching. Everyone is always involved, even if only one character is proactive for a few minutes.