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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9272548" data-attributes="member: 2067">Hold The Line is real close to the Sentinel feat, and fills the same functionality, so I'd be interested in why that feat doesn't work for the player. And if the character had a history of being an Akroan Hoplite, I'd probably want a diegetic reason for the difference. I mean, this mechanic is not exactly ideal, either, but it's a lesser offender.Still seems to be some misunderstanding.If the NPC is being designed to be a common element of the world, then it should not have abilities that are not common elements of the world.If we design the Commoner statblock to use for "basic NPC with no special abilities or qualities," then they shouldn't have the ability to shoot tiny versions of themselves out of their fingertips.If we design the Green Recruit statblock to use for "newbie soldier," then they shouldn't have the ability to become magically handsome for eight seconds.If we design the Apprentice Wizard statblock to use for "newbie wizard," then they shouldn't have rainbow tears, prehensile eyes, or the ability to spontaneously combust marmosets.This isn't about NPC/PC equivalence, this is about taking the world and story you are building with your buddies seriously enough to care about what happens to it and the creatures in it. A sword isn't just a mechanism for dealing 1d8 damage, it's a prop in a scene in your imagination. An Apprentice Wizard's arcane burst isn't just a mechanism for dealing damage to a PC to threaten a bad ending, it's a character in the scene in your imagination performing an action. As designed, it's a little like Poochie returning to his home planet - just baldly artificial. My issue isn't that this fails to live up to some abstract principle in my head, it's that the game mechanic isn't taking the diegetic context it occurs in seriously, thus leading to a worse play experience than I would otherwise have.And in the grand scheme of things, it's not enough to entirely wreck my enjoyment of the game, it's just worse than it has to be, and it could be different.</blockquote>

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