NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imp" data-source="post: 4548044" data-attributes="member: 40094">I actually narrate stuff like that in 3e fights and I did before I heard of 4e... now, usually, only in person v. person fights where they were just chopping down the first half of the other guy's hit points – a telling blow or a finishing blow would be with the business end of the weapon. Also if it mattered somehow, like a monster resistant to weapon types, I'd make sure there wasn't a clash there, etc. etc.A wrinkle to all that which hasn't been discussed is that when you treat 4e powers as an effect that can be described on the fly... well, it's generally accepted that 4e powers allow for a great deal of character customization, but when you make the descriptions of the (esp. martial) powers nebulous like that, they don't define the character as well – they're more like playing cards you deploy to abstractly affect the battle.I mean, if you describe what's written as a shield-bash effect as, depending on the circumstance, a kick to the belly, pulling the rug out from under the foe, intimidating him with a shout, chucking a wine bottle at him, and so on, that's all very vivid, but it does mean that the power kind of stops describing a fighter that's really good with a shield.I don't know how big of a deal that is, really. But because I came into reading the 4e PHB with that attitude, the powers section of the book read more like part of the combat system than part of the character customization system. (except for some of the casters)</blockquote>

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