I'm sorry, I must be confused yet again. I guess you would prefer me to say I didn't play a barbarian at all? I must have written some other class name and used some other mechanics then,
I don't force people into anything. Nobody is required to accept my help. These are just more of your false accusations. When I say "work with" the player. I meant it.
It seems you have some deep seated need to have revenge on me for your misperceived slight. I don't see any other reason for you to deliberately change what I'm saying so much.
Ah, so if I had shown up at your table with my Barbarian Knight, and told you of the idea that he is a questing knight looking for honor and glory for his courtly love and believes in the Chivalric code, you would have been fine letting me play it exactly as that?
I mean, sure, you might have mentioned that it didn't quite match up with the barbarian, but when you offer to "help" me homebrew a better solution to the class and I said "No, this is what I want, I'm happy with it" would you have let me play that character at the table?
If I refused to change the details (except perhaps which noble family he belonged to, which kingdom he hailed from, the setting details since noble lineages and kingdom structures can be important to the DM) would I be allowed to play it?
I wasn't speaking about you.
Bitter? Yes, I'm getting bitter about this discussion.
Misrepresentation? No, I don't think I have misrepresented you once. You just seem to see giant gulfs between the meaning of words and think saying things like "he is just mistaken" is not the same as saying "he is wrong"
And it is truly frustrating to have to fight down every nuance of every definition on every point, because you just can't seem to accept that there are holes in your position.
That's not accurate. There is 'fluff' throughout the class descriptions.
Every ability has 'fluff'.
They all represent things. Strip that away to just the 'mechanics' and it doesn't actually take up that much space.
Instead of Barbarian picture 'class A'. Then imagine just having 'ability 1, ability 2, etc.' Instead of 'Rage' it just says what it does 'Bonus Action for +2 damage...'.
It's hard to do because the 'fluff' is so integral to the game as you agreed. And if you change it you are no longer playing the class you are playing something else. Another way to say that is 'not following the PHB'.
Every ability has fluff?
Cunning Action states "Your quick thinking and agility allow you to move and act quickly."
That would mean rogues are quick and light on their feet. Able to process information quickly. They have a high Intelligence and a high dexterity.
A rogue with 12 in INT and DEX still gets this ability, but the wizard, the swashbuckling fighter, the ranger, none of them get it. Even if their INT and DEX are 22 each.
What about a rogue's fluff explains them being faster than everyone else?
How does that compare to the Monk and Barbarian who are actually faster if no bonus action is used to dodge, because their movement speed increases?
IF cunning actions "fluff" is a rule that describes the gameworld, how does it slot into this game world, what are the conditions for its use? If it is that rogues are criminals, why do fighters with the criminal or urchin background not get the same speed benefit? They lived in the same environment and also focused on dexterity, lockpicking and sleight of hand, but they can't get the same abiities.
This sort of discreprancy is what shows that the fluff has to be mutable. If it is unmutable, these things cause the world to snap in half or simply be full of boring tropes. If they are mutable, then they are simply suggestions for why things work.
I'm playing a human rogue thief. I decided that Cunning Action came from him working to stop his hesitation, he isn't hesitating before acting as much, so he can do a bit more. Fast Hands I decided is because he desperately started practicing after a party member went down and he realized he didn't have time to heal him and deal with the enemy bearing down on them.
That isn't in the fluff of the description. In fact, the point that my rogue could accurately be described as an alchemist and medic isn't in the Rogue class at all.