D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[Azzy]

I'm in the same boat. I love Studio Ghibli movies and that's about as far as my knowledge of the subject goes.

I'm guessing age-group is a big factor in anime familiarity.

Weird. LIke I said elsewhere, I'm used to just about every aspect of fandom sticking its nose in you business regardless of whether you're interested in it or not. Maybe its whether you or those you know participated in conventions or whatnot.

 

[JEB]

If you don't have the dirty fighting feat, your pocket sand is never going to blind your opponent (because if it can, why would anyone waste a slot on dirty fighting?)

Did we have the same Pathfinder Society GM? I was literally told I couldn't do this in a Pathfinder Society game, for that reason. That was also when I realized I was probably done with Pathfinder...

 

[JEB]

I'm in the same boat. I love Studio Ghibli movies and that's about as far as my knowledge of the subject goes.

I'm guessing age-group is a big factor in anime familiarity.

I'd be surprised if many younger anime fans have even heard of Record of Lodoss War or Slayers at this point - their heyday was almost 30 years ago!

 

[overgeeked]

Did we have the same Pathfinder Society GM? I was literally told I couldn't do this in a Pathfinder Society game, for that reason. That was also when I realized I was probably done with Pathfinder...

Which is why feats like that shouldn’t exist. A bonus to do something, sure. But gating actions that anyone should be able to attempt behind a feat or class ability in terrible design.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm in the same boat. I love Studio Ghibli movies and that's about as far as my knowledge of the subject goes.

I'm guessing age-group is a big factor in anime familiarity.

Where you hang out is a bigger one. I'm as old or older than most people on here, but I see anime references all the time and absorb them by osmosis.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Did we have the same Pathfinder Society GM? I was literally told I couldn't do this in a Pathfinder Society game, for that reason. That was also when I realized I was probably done with Pathfinder...

That's an example of a GM interpreting "There's this easy way to do this thing if you have a feat" as "without a feat you can't do it at all." The first does not imply the second, but a lot of GMs read it that way, cynically, because it means they mostly don't have to deal with it.

 

[Lanefan]

The idea that 5e player characters must have special training far beyond their background comes from trying to apply real world logic when the game is designed around action movie logic. And yes, this is a change from 1st edition.

Perhaps; but it's a change I reject and will - when I can - oppose.

I want at least a bit of real-world logic visibly underlying the fantasy, in order to give players (and DMs) something to relate to.

And if the characters in 5e weren't so bloody powerful right at level 1 then the need for them to have prior special training would disappear; they'd get that training either "on the job" while adventuring or at level-up, depending whether the DM is using training rules or not.

 

[Lanefan]

I suppose I'm just used to fandom being uh... ultra-intersexual, as it were. There's no escaping even the bits you don't care for.

Sure there is - it just takes a bit of active avoidance (I've always found the general look of anime to be thoroughly unappealing) coupled with an overarching apathy toward the genre.

 

[Lanefan]

Really, yes you can. If you are a PC. If you are not a PC you can never be a fighter, no matter how hard you train.

The inhabitants of the setting don't walk around with "PC" or "NPC" stickers on their foreheads.

If a PC inhabitant of the setting can do it, then - all other things being equal - an NPC inhabitant of the setting can also do it; and vice versa. If the PCs are all alien to the setting then this doesn't apply; but you've then imposed a hard limit on the size of the pool of potential replacement/additional PCs if any are needed during the campaign, that being the number of such aliens in the setting.

Any other approach blows away internal consistency for the setting, making the whole thing pointless.

 

[billd91]

Did we have the same Pathfinder Society GM? I was literally told I couldn't do this in a Pathfinder Society game, for that reason. That was also when I realized I was probably done with Pathfinder...

That was also totally wrong. You most definitely can use the Dirty Trick maneuver to impose the blinded condition if you lack the Improved Dirty Trick feat. You just offer up an attack of opportunity to do so (which may also make the maneuver check a lot harder).