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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 2589023" data-attributes="member: 3424">I think RAW vs common sense is a false dichotomy. Many things in the RAW go against common sense, but are accepted for the sake of simplicity. Is there a chance that you will hit your friend when you fire a ranged weapon past him to hit the opponent he is fighting in melee? Common sense says yes, but the RAW says that your friend provides the opponent with a +4 cover bonus to AC and you just take a -4 penalty for firing into melee. It isn't as realistic, but it requires less dice rolls and keeps the game going more smoothly."Common sense" is also a somewhat loaded term, in the sense that most people think they possess it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Unfortunately, most of the time, "common sense" is just shorthand for "this looks logical to me" or "this is my preference" or "this is my opinion", and all these things can be heavily influenced by our background and experiences. As a very simple example, I watched many Chinese wuxia television shows as a child, and so I find nothing strange about the idea of highly skilled individuals being able to fly around, blast energy beams from their hands, and wield strange weapons that decapitate their opponents at a distance. It has probably also influenced my tolerance for high-powered, fantastic settings and games. Someone else whose main fantasy influence is the books about Conan the Barbarian might have a very different idea of what is logical, possible and preferable.So instead of saying, "This is common sense," try using, "This seems more in line with the games I like to play," or "This is more likely to create the effect, mood, atmosphere or style of play that I want."Instead of going strictly by the RAW or by common sense, I prefer to go on the basis of what seems like it's going to be more fun (and this usually means more balanced) for myself and my players. Maybe that's a special application of common sense, but I'd prefer not to call it that. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />EDIT: Mis-spelled Conan the Barbarain. Please don't attack me, or I'll be forced to use my Five Point Exploding Palm Technique.</blockquote>

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