NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6077770" data-attributes="member: 82106">And just to reinforce that this is the key point. The goal is thematic coherency, and Justin's interpretation is ridiculous and implausible, far more so than the provided flavor text even in this case. Yet we can come up with many viable narrative ways to describe the action going on with this power, or we can even chose not to use it if we don't feel there is a credible explanation. (I know Balesir from previous discussions isn't really a fan of that option, but in fact it is by no means deprecated in any 4e published material). The problem is that the alternative is narrow and dry, nothing but mechanics which are so generic that they can describe anything. That's fine, but you need more. Another alternative is simply "lets have no rules for any of this at all" which is a viable approach, but creates the sorts of problems that leave 3.x a shambles if it isn't applied to the whole system consistently. ACTUALLY though, 4e provides a full range of options for the players and DM. There are tons of powers, many of which are very vanilla and when incorporated in a narrative will not expose substantial mechanical underpinnings to the narrative (see my post the other day about fighters). Beyond that 4e's 'page 42' system is a completely developed generalized system for doing anything you can describe. It is perhaps less elaborated on than in other systems (where it ties into plot coupons, character attributes, player goals, etc, though see APs for a weak version of this in 4e). Honestly, it is hard to see where a player who's main concerns are thematic and narrative will have a hard time finding tools to use to describe what he wants to do in mechanical terms in 4e. At that point any particular power is simply exactly what was proposed, a potential mechanical embodiment of the way you want to play your character. MOST players will simply pick some powers that fit with what they want to do and maybe refluff them now and then. When they don't seem narratively appropriate they'll do something else or refluff. The power player who only wants the dorky narratively implausible power use just because it is a little better right now to use THAT power? Ummmm, you got a table problem if that bothers you... No rules solve table problems, trust me, 35 years of DMing has taught me that much!</blockquote>

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