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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6276003" data-attributes="member: 17106">Well, it's part of playing a magical character. Playing a nonmagical character, you only have to track hit points (which are not merely some abstract resource but a measure of how dead you aren't) and consumable resources. And, to the point, how many people track arrows and rations? Some, but it's hardly required.I don't like dumbing things down either. However, I don't think resources are all that "smart".I think it's quite sufficient to ask a player to control his character's tactical movement, estimate the challenge of his opponents, estimate the probability spread of any of the actions he can attempt, estimate the survival odds for his character given his extant defenses, and choose actions accordingly. I don't think telling him that one of those actions will run out after he does it for some reason is really necessary. There's plenty of tactical thinking going on as it is.True, but resources would indicate that the character is capable of doing something, but has run out of it for some reason (probably not any good reason). It's perfectly fine for a DM to say that a wall isn't climbable because it's too steep or because the character isn't a good enough climber, but I'd rather he not say that because the character trying to climb has run out of "athlete points" for the day.Because they're not casters. Simply because something is possible with magic does not mean that same thing must exist without magic.And, as I asked above, why not consider the contrary? Why not instead have a magic system where the wizard can keep trying to cast magic missiles? Even if you want to say there's an incongruity between characters that have weird restrictions and those that don't, I'd rather address it by removing weird restrictions, not by adding new ones.I disagree.Only if the resource limitations were the source of challenge in the first place. Typically, use limitations do not determine success or failure in game situations anyway. Spellcasters don't run out of spell slots, and when they do they just rest. The "resources" that matter are hit points and time, which are very limited. The challenge in the game comes from probability estimation of what will be the most efficient use of time and what will minimize loss of hp for the good guys and maximize it for the bad guys.In noncombat scenarios, use-limited resources are usually completely irrelevant, and the question is whether the player can come up with a good plan, and perhaps whether his character creation resources were spent in a way to make him competent enough to do it.To me, one of the insights gained from playing modern-based d20 games is the observation that losing use-limited resources and class niches removes nothing of importance from the game whatsoever. The important stuff is all still there.</blockquote>

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