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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6198244" data-attributes="member: 17106">Player resources, not character resources. Characters can't manipulate scenes.Again, that's basically abdicating any sense of the player being in the perspective of the character, which changes the nature of the game.Which is false. They're not granted those abilities in the RAW. A spellcaster who wants to charm someone has no more authority to dictate his target's existence or his circumstances or his response than a rogue trying to diplomatically talk to the same target. And so on and so forth.And, if it's needed, Rule 0 is the RAW.Now, if you go the other way, and you go outside the RAW (even in a subtle way) and give players powers not enumerated in the rules, or set up scenarios that screw over the fighters or cater to the spellcasters then all bets are off, including with regards to your notions of balance. Of course, you can do that if you want, you just can't blame the rules for what happens next if you don't like it.Both of which are neutral and RAW tactics.Sure you can. If a player decides to teleport in somewhere and the DM doesn't think that place should be reachable by magic, he's free to say no now and make up a reason later. Given the existence of countermeasures (there are some), it's fine to make them up on the spot without preparation. Does that require that the DM make a reasonable call as to what is and is not attainable? Sure. But that's how this game works.I think the mutually assured destruction theory and the there's always someone more powerful than you theory work just fine. In the modern world, we have the technological capacity to destroy all of civilization with a relatively modest amount of effort. This hasn't happened, for essentially those reasons: the big powers know they can't use weapons beyond a certain level of destructiveness without risking reprisal, and they work very hard to keep those weapons out of the hands of rogue actors who don't care about those consequences. It seems to be working.And in D&D, you have tangible deities who have real power, as well as epic NPCs, dragons, mystical forces, and so on. While deus ex machina is a term generally used to describe undesirable plot devices, in D&D, it can be seen as a very tangible thing. And again, there are entire books full of deity stats. It's well within the RAW and RAI to assume that level of peacekeeping power exists and is regularly exercised.It's also well within the RAW and RAI to assume that less omnipotent but still important NPCs understand that magic exists and take countermeasures to prevent it from being used abusively.Now, do those always work, or can the PCs come up with a plan to achieve their goals? That's where the action is.</blockquote>

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