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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 4814739" data-attributes="member: 54877">I'm personally fine with martial as it works now, because I don't mind some narrativism in my D&D (rather like it, actually), and also because as a fencer I have no trouble accepting, from an in-character, simulationist perspective--that certain things only happen about once an encounter or once a day. There are things you can try as often as you want in fencing--because at worst you'll give up a touch. If your life was on the line, you wouldn't even try them 1/day, and certainly not without the situation being perfect. You don't spam brute strike over and over because the last guy five guys you saw try that are all dead. So the only simulationist hit, to me, is precisely the narrativism--the player picking when. The what is not a problem. I don't think there is any real way to completely square this problem and stay within the rules as written, but if "ki" is the perspective you need to accept it, then whatever works. I also happen to think that all characters, but certainly martial, know how to do most of the powers. The ones on their sheets are the ones they practice constantly. This is why "retraining" works. Because stuff like this doesn't work unless practiced constantly. "Ki" fits that idea well enough, and thus retraining gets a sim nod. To actually rip the narrativism out, I'd be tempted to put it all back on equipment. Specifically, use the +1 attack, damage, and defenses at 3rd, 8th, etc. houserule (also adjusted for masterwork armor at higher levels). Now, as noted earlier, magic items are almost totally optional. The only power you are missing if you don't have any is the extra properties and the magic item activations, which you can still supply with a handful of items. Now, that items are not so important, take all the exploits (or at least the dailys) and invest them as special abilities of the equipment. To keep it simple, remove the magic item activations per day limit.  The net result is that the fighter is described somewhat by his sword. OTOH, he can pick up a sword at 1st level and use it for a long time, maybe his whole career. He can lose the sword and be out of dailies until he gets it back. On the other hand, he can pick up an axe and still have his +X to hit and damage. And he can find another magic weapon with different abilities (though rarely), and thus have two sets of powers to pick from. The mechanics are a lot different, but if you are stingy with equipment, the rationalization won't be that different from why the Basic D&D fighter needs that magic sword to beat the dragon.</blockquote>

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