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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 4296142" data-attributes="member: 1106">Scribble - have you ever followed M:tG?  M:tG's history tells us a couple of things about exception-based games:1) As the number of exceptions increase, the number of balance problems with broken exceptions inevitably go up.  There's less obvious blunders like Black Lotuses when the designers wise up to their game, but you get the odd Necropotence slipping through the net and end up with a Black Summer.  2) Exceptions can combine in unexpected ways with broken results, and as the number goes up, it becomes impractical to test them all.Now consider - D&D is new to being treated in this way, and the designers are doubtlessly still learning about the finer points of what they've created.  Maybe there's a Black Lotus already in the PHB, staring us in the face, that only hindsight will uncover.  Equivalent to the Haste realisation that actions are the real currency of 3E combat.  It'll probably be in the guise of something subtle, like shifting monsters or PCs about, but in a year's time will be as "obviously broken" as extra actions are to 3E players.Maybe the PHB's totally fine (unlikely), but I'd suggest that turning D&D into a fully exception-based model ruleset with those exceptions having at-will screentime and default action status means that it's burning a much shorter fuse towards becoming broken than it once was.Does this matter?  I'm not sure.  D&D's survived being very broken indeed before.  It's just an observation about what the 4E paradigm is likely to lead to, if M:tG is any guide.</blockquote>

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