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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benimoto" data-source="post: 5771300" data-attributes="member: 40093">I do recognize that, and I'm still looking forward to 5e even if it does end up being a rules-mushy attempt to please everybody.  I think WotC is doing good work and I'm eager to see their next product.At the same time I see certain caveats to having dials and options.  Here's a quick list, and on a lot of these I am just playing devil's advocate and being unusually pessimistic.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Page Count: As long as we're deaing with a physical book product, inculding rules that you're not going to use ends up physically taking away details of rules you do like.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Uneven Power Levels: It's inevitable that some options will favor some characters and disfavor others.  Players being players, they will cynically want to use the rules that make their character more powerful ("As the wizard, I think we should use the optional summoning rules.  That way I get to have two turns a round") and of course they'll not want to use rules that they think hurt their character ("No way are we using the optional swamp exploration resource tracking rules for this.  After all we're already using the optional poison festering rules and together they're a recipe for everyone getting Zombie Fever!").</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Blaming/Resentment: Making certain rules optional is going to give some players something to focus on when something doesn't go their way in the game.  ("My fighter would have never been killed by that Mind Flayer if we had been using the optional rules for location-based grappling modifiers!  My horned helmet has the impermeable quality in that system!")</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Support: more options means more things to support in every future product.  And that ends up spreading caveat #1 across every future product as well.  ("Don't like healing surges?  Use this optional alternate system!  Except that there's no checkbox for it in the e-tools.  And in this future book where artifacts use healing surges, there's no indication what to do if you don't use healing surges.")</li> </ol></blockquote>

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