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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 4038691" data-attributes="member: 18">I've been thinking about this, and I've worked out why this example, the Bugbear Strangler and his human shield, is so particularly annoying. It's not just because, in theory, anyone could do it (there is no possible way this would take "years of training" to do - people learn to do similar things in a matter of weeks). The idea that it takes special training to strangle someone is particularly ludicrous. To do it well, sure, but ineptly? PCs should be able to.What's really annoying, though, is that Strangulation and using people as "Human Shields" are rules that D&D has been noticeably missing since I started playing. I've wanted bad guys to use people as human shields, but you always have to make it up, which is faintly objectionable in a game as tactically-oriented as D&D. Players and NPCs have wanted to strangle and particularly garotte people, but D&D has always lacked decent rules for it.As for PCs throwing rocks when Enlarged. Absolutely they should be able to throw larger rocks. They won't have the proficiency etc. of giants, but they should be able to DO IT.If they do include a decent stunt system for 4E, I admit my nerd rage will be largely mollified, but for now, this remains the silliest thing I've seen in 4E. I really don't buy that including a couple of paragraphs of extra grapple possibilities would throw D&D into some sort of rules-bloat disarray, and I think it would resolve a lot of situations. I also think the idea that we're avoiding rules-bloat only to have it come back to use in the form of later splatbooks is pretty silly.</blockquote>

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