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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dkyle" data-source="post: 5883587" data-attributes="member: 70707">But ultimately, you're not breaking the game, because there's no actual game to noticing powers, or using illusory dragons to intimidate enemies.  You're trying to "break" a "game" that is entirely subject to DM discretion to begin with.  If there aren't rules for it, then there's really no game being broken.You say your Scorching Burst looks like a dragon swooping out of the sky?  I'd probably say OK, and as long as you used it like a Scorching Burst in the actual game (which in DnD, in all editions, is mostly the combat system), I'd be fine with it.  You start saying it's an ancient dragon, I'd start objecting on grounds of pure flavor silliness, at that point (it's a burst 1 for minimal damage, after all).  You start saying it's of sufficient realism that you can use it as an actual tool to intimidate people with "your dragon", and I'd start calling BS that a level 1 at-will should be capable of producing an illusion of that quality, or summoning an Epic level creature.  I still didn't have to play "game designer" because it wasn't really a matter of any actual game mechanics, just the consistency and logic of the world.The "crunch" is how the power relates to the actual game mechanics.  The fluff is the rest.  Could it be useful if the players are creative?  Sure.  But it's usefulness is ultimately rooted entirely in DM discretion.Consider this: if a player asked, not as a matter of reflavoring or anything, to simply have a newly-hatched dragon follow his character around, sit on his shoulder like a parrot, etc., without having any in-combat (or other game mechanic) use, I'd probably say "OK, enjoy!".  There wouldn't even be the need for them to reflavor stuff to have a little dragon with them.  If they asked the same for an Ancient dragon, I'd probably say no, because that's just ridiculous.  Again, not because of me playing game designer, but me playing world builder.It could have a stat-block that indicates that a summoned Ancient dragon appears, flys a given distance, does a blast 3, then disappears.  It would be mechanically significant, because it could be vulnerable to OAs, interrupts, and readied actions, and might not always be able to target the area desired.It's separating the "players can expect to work in a predictable, well-defined way" from the "stuff that might be useful, but only if the DM says it's OK".I like a sharp distinction between the part of the game that's actually a game, and the part that's basically just "DM, may I?"  There are plenty of RPGs with well defined non-combat rules.  DnD really never has.</blockquote>

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