Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
New Wild Shape
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8958573" data-attributes="member: 6988941"><p>A lot of it has to do with the fact that magic has license to follow completely arbitrary rules, whereas anything purporting to be actual martial combat is expected to at least have some sliver of grounding in how <em>people think</em> historical combat worked. Magic can also be more readily limited to things only the caster of that spell can do using the spell slot, whereas giving a martial character the ability to, say, make a lunging attack three times per day begs the question as to why everyone else can't do that thing and why the one guy can only do it three times per day.</p><p></p><p>Designers get to be a lot more creatively uninhibited in their approach to magic, and can also limit things for game balance reasons without any bit of real world justification. Yes you absolutely can create mundane fighting moves that work more like spells, but they much more readily beg questions about the arbitrary game limitations you impose on them, and require a least a little explanation as to why they work. Adding a spell to the game called "Create Mayonnaise" that shoots condiments in an opponents eyes, but can also be used to dress a sandwich, is absurd, but it is not as absurd as trying to achieve the same dual purposes with a sword maneuver, which people would expect one heck of an explanation for.</p><p></p><p>I don't like that situation, but I'm fairly confident it's the driving reason why 5e ended up being almost all magic for almost everything almost all the time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 8958573, member: 6988941"] A lot of it has to do with the fact that magic has license to follow completely arbitrary rules, whereas anything purporting to be actual martial combat is expected to at least have some sliver of grounding in how [I]people think[/I] historical combat worked. Magic can also be more readily limited to things only the caster of that spell can do using the spell slot, whereas giving a martial character the ability to, say, make a lunging attack three times per day begs the question as to why everyone else can't do that thing and why the one guy can only do it three times per day. Designers get to be a lot more creatively uninhibited in their approach to magic, and can also limit things for game balance reasons without any bit of real world justification. Yes you absolutely can create mundane fighting moves that work more like spells, but they much more readily beg questions about the arbitrary game limitations you impose on them, and require a least a little explanation as to why they work. Adding a spell to the game called "Create Mayonnaise" that shoots condiments in an opponents eyes, but can also be used to dress a sandwich, is absurd, but it is not as absurd as trying to achieve the same dual purposes with a sword maneuver, which people would expect one heck of an explanation for. I don't like that situation, but I'm fairly confident it's the driving reason why 5e ended up being almost all magic for almost everything almost all the time. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
New Wild Shape
Top