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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6076269" data-attributes="member: 82106">[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]I think I take it a bit less strictly overall. I think that 4e's rules are like previous edition's rules mostly, they tell you how you can mechanically handle things. So the Purple Worm battle sounds about right. As for say "You just get the Paragon Path at level 11" this is a literally true mechanical statement, and may well reflect play in many cases (LFR for instance). OTOH it is equally easy to see it as just the mechanical side of the instructions (IE, here's how you indicate on your character sheet that you have PP X and here's the mechanics for using it in combat). That says NOTHING about the STORY. HOW and WHY you got that PP and what the requirements or flaming hoops might be that are involved is not up to a set of game rules to invent. In fact every PP has a pretty hefty chunk of 'fluff' with it that fairly well describes how it might come to pass. Your Battlefield Archer constantly hones his archery through 100 (roughly) battles until finally he's so expert he gets some extra mechanics to represent that (on top of all the other ones that 10 levels of play gives him). Obviously a game could be written in which all of the RP side of this stuff is all spelled out in extreme detail. It would mean building the game around a default world, but it could be a cool world. No DM is likely to extend the existing material this much on his own, it is simply a huge task. OTOH of the 10 or so PCs that have attained a PP playing in my campaigns all of them were built around the narrative story of the character and they each did something to achieve it. I think if you read Chris Perkins' reports on his Iomandra campaign it sounds like he's doing the same kind of thing. I can see the distinction between skills and powers in terms of definiteness, but I don't think it is necessary. Your worm encounter illustrates this already. Powers can and will be heavily modified by circumstance, skills will be used in new ways, rituals, items, equipment, etc. Magic Missile may pretty much always just hit, and it may be less easy to be sure what Arcana can do, but I see it as a continuum. MM is something highly practiced, it will USUALLY work (but don't be shocked when once or twice in a campaign it doesn't "just work") and Arcana plus maybe a power/ritual is just 'winging it', less certain but when you're a skilled Arcanist you can have some fair trust in your own ability.</blockquote>

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