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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8396762" data-attributes="member: 29398">Mindflayers are monsters, which I've already noted can and do work differently.One was outright bad; he played favourites among the players and overall was on something of a power trip.  Another was inexperienced (which is fine, of course) and somewhat let the players walk all over him (which isn't fine; being walked over was kind of a part of his personality, and as this wasn't likely to change it meant he wasn't really cut out to be a DM).Cool!  Now tell me, how can you possibly have one without the other?We agree about balance, at least. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I put setting consistency ahead of story pretty much every time; in part because if I and-or the players can't use the setting as-is to tell a decent story then I've clearly designed a garbage setting and should start over.They don't.Game mechanics.  If Elves have a non-class-related power then it perforce has to apply to all Elves as a benefit of species, thus making them more powerful (probably).  If only some Elves have a power then, if it's not class-related, how do they get it and why can't my Elf PC get it?I see class as very much translating into the game world, much like occupation translates in our real world.Real-world conversation:"What do you do?""I'm an accountant with Price-Waterhouse."In-setting conversation:"What do you do?""I'm an adventuring Cleric to Tymora."It's the same conversation.I very much agree.  I just don't have the patience to do all the designing it'd take to get to that point. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Well, in the specific example of Clerical spells in fact I do have to prepare everything in advance, such that a player thinking of playing a Cleric has all the options - and the ramifications thereof, for good and-or bad - available up front.  And as I've no idea ahead of time which deities the players will want to play Clerics to either now or later, to do this right means I have to design a bespoke spell list for each one of 'em; and last I checked, my setting has something like 70 deities in it.Life's too short. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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