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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7016023" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm sorry to read that you had this bad experience with 4e.I feel that is is very easy to exaggerate this point.For instance: the 4e fireball description and the Moldvay Basic fireball description are almost identical (right down to the point of referring to damage to creatures only). But for some reason the reference to creatures in 4e causes no end of consternation (as if there's some doubt whether a fireball can be used to set fire to stuff) whereas in Basic it caused no issues at all.Personally, I don't find the description of mechanical effects to be part of the immersive aspect at all. For me (and I think for those I play with), what generates immersion is emotional engagement with the action of the game. The mechanics are a tool for helping to generate that action, but they are not themselves a source of immersion. Having the power say "encounter power" (ie recharge after short rest) is like haveing the fireball spell say "Xd6 damage". It's a shorthand telling you how the thing in question factors into the mechanical play of the game.The last sentence only follows if one assumes that having mechanically discrete and distinctive abilities = is a spell caster.Even in AD&D this wasn't true - see eg the martial arts manoeuvres in OA, or a monk's special abilities. In 3E it's not true (see eg feats and some class abilities).And it's certainly not conceptually true.This is a complete non-sequitur. If all I read are decent books, each is unique and each seems special!I meet a lot of people in my job - all are unique, many seem special.In the context of a FRPG combat, an ability is "special" if, in play, it (i) creates a cool image, and (ii) makes the players think about how they're going to deal with it, and if, after the vent, it (iii) remains memorable. I find this to be the case for a good number of 4e monsters: they create cool images during play, they force the players to think, and the whole event is memorable. The issues of "degree of uniqueness" has no real bearing on this, except that stuff that is the same tends not to be as memorable, because it blurs together in the memory.</blockquote>

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