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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 5854922" data-attributes="member: 9053">Whenever I see something like this (that you can do 'powers' without a power system), I always want to mention this:Suppose you have a decent basic D&D game, but one where the GM says "no" when you make a suggestion about doing an attack that's not just a simple basic attack. Or even better, they say "no" where you make a suggestion that you do the same maneuver they're allowed more than once a session. Or take your power and make an arbitrary rule that makes it far less effective than just making a basic attack.That's what D&D was like for many, many people before the power system. That was the entire point of the system: you can do interesting things that the GM agrees will work reliably without having to get their permission.Imagine if I was playing an AD&D fighter and said "I just dropped a foe, so I'm going to take an extra blow as the attack cleaves into the adjacent foe." How many GMs would allow that? And how many would allow it every time, instead of eventually saying "you're just trying to get away with something, cut it out!"And yet when you're using the 3X combat rules, you can do exactly that, all the time, with cleave. The 4E power system lets you choose between dozens of effects just like that. The GM approves the power, and you know it's going to actually be available and work for you. No negotiating, no "the circumstances don't work this time," no "you've done that too often, your foe counters it."I don't understand how it's hard to see that idea as a bad thing. If you do see it as bad, what would you suggest if your players wanted to be as creative as you can be with the powers system on the fly, every combat? If you say "great! I'd love it!" then why would actually putting some rule mechanics behind it be a bad thing?EDIT: wow. One post leveled me up <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Thanks everyone, I'm a Myrmidon now.</blockquote>

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