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="The Grassy Gnoll" data-source="post: 6494018" data-attributes="member: 6788652">A few things:1. I actually find that, paradoxically, "limitations" enhance role-playing and character concept rather than limit them. A wrinkle on your loved one's face is a million times more interesting than an unblemished face. How did it get there? A smile wrinkle? A frown wrinkle? No matter: whether a sminkle or a frinkle, each tells a tale. Same ball, different game, but you get the idea.2. Are you aware of the monstrous effort and amount of natural resources required to create usable, weaponisable (if that is a word) metal from iron ore? By which we mean steel: See here for some idea: <a href="http://www.barbariankeep.com/steel.html" target="_blank">http://www.barbariankeep.com/steel.html</a> - it is not a natural process! To say otherwise is ludicrous. Watch Gold Rush some day, see how much effort (and environmental damage) goes into finding raw materials even with modern equipment, much less refining them. I imagine a Druid would look at a slag heap and weep. Metal - all metal that is usable as arms and armour, but particularly steel - is made from that which exists IN nature but it isn't itself as a finished product a part OF nature. You don't find steel in a gold pan, or on a bush, or as a layer in a rocky mesa. You have to force it into being. Pretty much the definition of being "not part of nature". 3. Now, taken to the nth degree, there is an argument that they couldn't use any coins, gold, or metal gear of any sort BUT that would make them completely unplayable. So, y'know, see that Druid over there? The hairy guy, crying in a tree? Throw him a frickin' Scimitar, man. Give him a break. Make up a justification. I assume you are a DM and presumably therefore a person of intellect and imagination, a renegade who obeys the rules only when they suit his maverick style. So, make something up. "The Horny Thorny Men will suffer the making of steel for weapons in the fight to protect the balance of the world, to help defeat our enemies in battle, and protect both man and the land. Just don't flaunt your quarry at us. Yes, I'm looking at you, Dwarf Boy". Tongue in cheek, but heart on sleeve, it's a usable concept. That said, I agree that "The Horny Thorny Men also decree that we will only use scimitars (for they are curvy and look cool)" does take some thought. I checked my 1st ed AD&D PHB and sickles weren't listed so I guess the scimitar was a halfway house that stuck.4. Ultimately... Meh. I think I have a number of sensible justifications for saying metal isn't a part of nature. You disagree. You think one thing, I think another. Let's shake hands (take that metal gauntlet off first...take it off, I say...), and move on. Otherwise we'll just go round and round in (druidic) circles forever.</blockquote>

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