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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6633929" data-attributes="member: 2067">Thanks, that helps me understand his perspective a bit more.I think there's a tension here between what you "want to use" and what you fee like you have to use because it's "more effective." And this is pretty interesting because it's about gameplay goals.I think there are a LOT of tables who feel like this choice is clear: you do what you want, because D&D for a lot of tables is primarily a game about doing what you WANT to do, not a game about winning by being effective. It's not primarily a challenge-based fun of skill and mastery, but more a social-based fun of creativity and sharing. When the two are in competition, you go with the latter - even if you die, it's adding to the fun story being told through the play. Effectiveness is a second-order consideration, clearly subordinate to having fun. Better to die a glorious and reckless death than to 100% the dungeon without taking damage by poking every inch with an 11-foot pole. I know if my gnome sorcerer comes up against a dragon with Legendary Resistance, I'm not going to be at my most effective (my save-or-suck spells become largely a waste of a turn). I'll be spending my actions on saving throw cantrips to eat it up or maybe lobbing a chromatic orb or two  (and ending with a SLEEP!). It'd probably be more effective to learn fly and pitch the paladin at 'em, but that's not the character I'm playing, that's not what I'd have fun doing, so it's not what I'm going to do. Effectiveness is not a primary decider for me or any of the groups that I've been in. I think I'd rankle at a table where it was - where what gets the numbers big is more important than the kind of role I want to play. Not casting fly is always an option, even if it's a less effective option, because effectiveness doesn't determine my actions. It's a factor - I'd rather be a little effective than totally ineffective - but it's not the determining factor. I will do something less effective if it is more in character and will let me have more fun.</blockquote>

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