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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4104578" data-attributes="member: 58197">Since I don't want to say "No," doing so seems inadvisable.Retconning unbalanced abilities away is sometimes necessary, but nobody likes doing it and nobody likes having it done to them.  And allowing free use of monster "special attacks" is going to result in a lot of retconning, because some of those special attacks will inevitably turn out to be extremely powerful.What I want is to give the PCs a chance to use the ability, since they should be able to try.  But I want it to be much less powerful, in general, than the abilities their characters know well and have trained to use.  The odds should be heavily against them, and they should know that--but they should still have a chance.If you're going to allow the use of such special abilities at will with no penalty, what's the point of even bothering to write down martial powers on your character sheet?  After all, all characters should be allowed to try the Hungry Piranha Leaping Elbow Strike.  It's ridiculous to say that PCs can attempt the special maneuvers of monsters but not those of their own fellow party members.Imposing a heavy penalty on ad-hoc uses of such abilities prevents most potential balance issues; it ensures that the PCs' own powers remain the defining elements of their characters' combat styles; and it makes sense.  The picador has been training for who knows how long to throw that harpoon.  Certainly, what he can do with it is quite impressive.  Why should a PC pick up the harpoon and instantly be able to do the same thing just as well as the picador?  It should be a desperation move or a crazy stunt, not something that goes in the PC's regular repertoire.Now, as I say, if a player becomes enamored of the harpoon and wants to become a harpoon specialist, we can sit down and hash that out after the game.  The PC is going to have to work for that ability, just like any other martial power--which means she'll appreciate it that much more when she finally masters it.</blockquote>

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