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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Familiars and Spiritual weapon, Turrets and Tentacles, some have HP some do not, why?
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8495761" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Sometimes the fluff does not match the game mechanic.</p><p></p><p>All the "spells" in the game are just game rules that affect other game rules. And the reason why some do one thing one way while others do another thing another way is for varied gameplay and (hopefully) strategic thinking.</p><p></p><p>It is then on top of these game mechanic interactions that D&D places the fluff of what these mechanics are and look like "in story", and this fluff can be wide and varied to make for interesting visualizations in story. Sometimes that fluff is easily layered on top of the mechanics and the two together work and makes total sense... but sometimes there's a break between the two. Which happens. The fluff of <em>Barkskin</em> and the mechanics of <em>Barkskin</em> do not align at all for example.</p><p></p><p>So in the case of familiars / summoned creatures and things like <em>Spiritual Weapon</em> / <em>Flaming Sphere</em>... the mechanics were built so that the mechanics of the former can be removed from the game via a variable time period (whenever the "object" gets "hit" enough times to remove it) and the latter is removed on a set time period (when the "duration" of the "spell" ends.) If the fluff that gets layered on top of both of these mechanics doesn't completely align (because it seems like all these "objects" should be able to be "hit", even though the mechanics only allow for some of them to be)... you either try to re-do the fluff to change what these things are "in story"... or you just accept that sometimes game mechanics cannot be represented "in story" via the fluff in a way that upholds the universal narrative of the "game world", and they look as they do because the in story application is fun and cool and interesting to visualize and sometimes that's more important than trying to get every mechanic and fluff to go together seamlessly.</p><p></p><p>So if you want all the varied options of game mechanics and game interactions for the D&D board game while also playing the D&D roleplaying story... sometimes you have to just shrug your shoulders and go with it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8495761, member: 7006"] Sometimes the fluff does not match the game mechanic. All the "spells" in the game are just game rules that affect other game rules. And the reason why some do one thing one way while others do another thing another way is for varied gameplay and (hopefully) strategic thinking. It is then on top of these game mechanic interactions that D&D places the fluff of what these mechanics are and look like "in story", and this fluff can be wide and varied to make for interesting visualizations in story. Sometimes that fluff is easily layered on top of the mechanics and the two together work and makes total sense... but sometimes there's a break between the two. Which happens. The fluff of [I]Barkskin[/I] and the mechanics of [I]Barkskin[/I] do not align at all for example. So in the case of familiars / summoned creatures and things like [I]Spiritual Weapon[/I] / [I]Flaming Sphere[/I]... the mechanics were built so that the mechanics of the former can be removed from the game via a variable time period (whenever the "object" gets "hit" enough times to remove it) and the latter is removed on a set time period (when the "duration" of the "spell" ends.) If the fluff that gets layered on top of both of these mechanics doesn't completely align (because it seems like all these "objects" should be able to be "hit", even though the mechanics only allow for some of them to be)... you either try to re-do the fluff to change what these things are "in story"... or you just accept that sometimes game mechanics cannot be represented "in story" via the fluff in a way that upholds the universal narrative of the "game world", and they look as they do because the in story application is fun and cool and interesting to visualize and sometimes that's more important than trying to get every mechanic and fluff to go together seamlessly. So if you want all the varied options of game mechanics and game interactions for the D&D board game while also playing the D&D roleplaying story... sometimes you have to just shrug your shoulders and go with it. [/QUOTE]
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Familiars and Spiritual weapon, Turrets and Tentacles, some have HP some do not, why?
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