Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ainamacar" data-source="post: 5616071" data-attributes="member: 70709">Can people say something with their dying last breath in a world?  Can they be mortally wounded but linger?  Can they lose an arm permanently?  If the rules say yes, then clearly the answer is yes.  To the degree the rules don't address all these little variations, or do so in a clumsy way, then DM fiat is permissible.  As I understand it, you suggest that because there are clear death and dying rules in the game and clear interactions with magical healing, that those rules should be strictly applied in all cases.  I think that those rules don't adequately handle a good many ways people can die, and in fact promote player expectations at odds with our natural expectations of how the world works: that some wounds are too grievous to heal and even magic has its limits.  In such cases the best thing is to improve the rules (much preferred!), or make a fair-minded exception.And that seems to be the crux of the issue: as far as I can tell you don't believe in the fair-minded exception.  In fact, that the only possible answer is along the lines of "because shut up" or "more drama!"  Those aren't even close to the only responses possible, and for the latter reason I can even appreciate it as a legitimate playstyle issue.  Besides, DMs that follow the rules wherever they lead can cause player angst over violated expectations just as easily as poor DM fiat.  Think of every classic rules exploit or peculiarity: housecats vs. commoners, cleave and the bag o' rats, any infinite damage combo.  These are the extreme cases, but if you object that your viewpoint doesn't apply to these cases, is it not precisely because the rules cover these situations but are utterly inadequate?  When the rules make you expect something that make no sense in the world, or even too little sense, I know which I would jettison.And still, I would never use the "dying breath" ability as to add drama without also requiring that it makes better sense within the setting than the rules.  If it is an agreed upon houserule, all the better.For your flight in over the bottomless pit example, I can think of many wonderful reasons why flight might not work.  They are the reasons that whoever constructed or guards said pit would not want such things to work!  Magic that attempts to dispel spells midway through.  A wizard that is scrying and interferes directly.  Intense winds.  Twisted space, so that you can't help but go in circles.  I suppose the DM could use these as an excuse to screw the player, but it isn't necessarily so.</blockquote>

Verification