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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6285420" data-attributes="member: 17106">A fighter should be able to sneak attack. As should an untrained commoner. Perhaps not as well as a rogue trained in skullduggery, but the lack of advantage for attacking targets who are unaware of you is bizarre.As should anyone be able to do anything.The one possible exception would be magic, if we take it that magic is not an exertion of skill. This seems to be an assumption that underlies all of D&D's magic. If casting a spell were simply a matter of saying the right words and waving one's hands the right way, anyone should be able to do it. Because this is not the case we can conclude that the spell really comes from some external source beyond the character's control (divinity, bloodline, pact, etc.), and that even an infinitely intelligent/wise/charismatic person with infinite knowledge of magic who perfectly renders a spell's components does not receive the effects unless he has the appropriate support (which is apparently represented by class levels).The same is not true, however, of anything else. An infinitely dextrous person should be able to hide regardless of whether or not he is a rogue, an infinitely strong person should be able to deal damage regardless of whether or not he is a fighter, and an infinitely skilled person should be able to accomplish anything that can be accomplished through skill.I'd much rather see a D&D that breaks further into the assumption above and gives us ways of adjudicating magic usage by the uninitiated than one that reverts back to the old school mentality of a class as a list of things you can't do because they're the property of some other class.</blockquote>

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