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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wyrmshadows" data-source="post: 3968874" data-attributes="member: 56166">Combat 70% of play!?!?!Sometimes I wonder if I have been DMing D&D at all for all these years.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":confused:" title="Confused    :confused:"  data-smilie="5"data-shortname=":confused:" /> I suppose this is what I most dread about what I am inferring about 4e's design decisions. Combat is all and if that is the way the game is meant to be played I would argue in favor of making damn sure that all classes were combat optimized. To be honest I wouldn't want to ruin everyone's fun by denying them ultimate utility in nearly all combat situations if most people are actually playing D&D this way.However, I have DM'd plenty of sessions where there was only 1 battle and a large number of sessions where no combats took place instead being replaced with social interactions and various other non-combat related activities. It isn't that combat optimization wasn't important, it was just that other things such as character development, investigation, attending to one's lands and castle, dealing with intrigues, etc. often meant more.No one spoke of builds...and none of my players speak in those terms even now...but instead created a character concept and then chose the class, feats, background necessary to make said character concept come to life in all aspects of the game and not just in an infinite dungeon environment.I could never DM a game that was that combat heavy because I would be bored to tears. That much dice rolling would make me feel as if I were playing monopoly or some board game as opposed to a role-playing game. My enjoyment comes from role-playing NPCs, telling stories, creating intrigues and plot hooks, and making the players feel like "hey that place seems real and my character does too."If that is how folks want to play, have at it. If for some reason the game funneled my DMing style into this mode when I was a younger, more impressionable DM who believed that "official" actually meant more than some other experienced DM's opinion I would have quit DMing or playing D&D long ago.Hopefully 4e can, with some ease, support playstyles that are often 20%-35% combat.Wyrmshadows</blockquote>

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