Cause Fear: What the heck?

[tomBitonti]

- For a Good deity: I could see using it to give a follower a burst of speed to get out of harm's way ("go on without me!")
- For an Evil deity: I could see using it to prod a follower more swiftly into battle.

It's the "invoke the wrath of your deity" part that is tough to swallow. You have been a devout follower for all of you days, then suddenly you are confronted by the incarnate wrath of your deity?

I _can_ see it from an evil deity. It seems just right.

 

[keterys]

Actually yes, illogical rules do make it confusing.

The problem is that it's subjective logic. It doesn't make sense to you, it does to someone else, etc. The rules are very clear, so if you just look at the text, it's very clear how it works.

Our brain just goes 'Oh, it must work like X' instead. There's no table lookup, no rules look up, it's all right there in the power.

Which means you can have 3 fear powers, one of which works like cause fear 'move now under your own direction, provoking', another of which works like howl of doom 'push squares under my direction, now, now provoking' or like 'on your turn, move'

Which is fine. Things are allowed to work differently, and it's better for the design space to a certain extent. Just have to keep a clean brain.

Since, I can't seem to phrase my further thoughts in a way that does not leave a value judgment. I'll just say all methods of thought are equally valid, the lack of logic in some of these rules will lead to confusion to some people who think differently that the D&D 4e rule book was written.

Your argument is just as valid as someone who says that AC causes confusion because armor doesn't work like DR, as it logically should. It's a good reason to dislike a power, it's a good reason to prefer different styles of mechanic, but it's not a reason that the power is confusing.

 

[mvincent]

It's the "invoke the wrath of your deity" part that is tough to swallow.

Having witnessed caring parents willing to scream bloody hell at their child to get them out of harm's way, I could probably manage to justify it.
"Fly you fool!"

 

[Ahglock]

Your argument is just as valid as someone who says that AC causes confusion because armor doesn't work like DR, as it logically should. It's a good reason to dislike a power, it's a good reason to prefer different styles of mechanic, but it's not a reason that the power is confusing.

No, it is different. This does not violate the logic of how armor works or how movement in reality works it violates the internal logic of the game system, with things like turn based movement.

 

[keterys]

You mean, like all those warlord abilities that let you shift and slide your allies, all those forced movement attacks, and...

It appears that the overwhelming majority of actions you take against or for someone result in movement occurring immediately, not on their turn.

This does not violate game logic. Just a subjective desired logic.

Sadly, we're not robots, but it's a matter of retraining how we play is all. It's all brand new.

 

[Torchlyte]

It's not confusing at all.