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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8046324" data-attributes="member: 7006">I've been running 5E since the beginning and have recently started playing in a PF1 game myself... and my issue with PF is the same issue I had with 3E/3.5 at the time-- trying to fluff every single bit of game mechanics produces nothing but &quot;mongrelfolk&quot; storytelling of who our character is and what they are doing.As [USER=6788736]@Flamestrike[/USER] said... when your PC ends up being a &quot;Ruby Knight Vindicator/ Warblade/ Crusader with Divine metamagic/ Persistent spells, spamming martial manouvers with Wraithstrike&quot;... those words end up meaning nothing.&nbsp; For the fluff of the story to actually work with the mechanics of rolling dice we need to visualize in our mind's eye just how things look and what is happening.&nbsp; When it's as simple as visualizing that this particular d6 I'm rolling is a &quot;handaxe&quot; rather than a &quot;shortsword&quot;... everything is hunky dory.&nbsp; We easily suspend our disbelief.&nbsp; But when our sheet is filled with 37 different class features and feats, all of which give a +1 bonus here, a +1 bonus there... but all of them are fluffed to actually represent something in the game world? It just become a morass of stuff we just ignore.My PC has a +1 to AC due to the &quot;Dodge&quot; feat.&nbsp; But I have never not once once ever though my character was a agile, &quot;dodging&quot; type of person.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because that point of AC was added to everything else that raised my AC score and it's no longer referenced as a dodge, it's just that my AC is higher.&nbsp; I also have a +1 to weapon damage rolls due to &quot;Arcane Strike&quot;.&nbsp; But on my sheet my longsword is written as &quot;1d8+4&quot;.&nbsp; So I have to remind myself that my weapon is slightly magical doe to my character infusing some magic into it.&nbsp; Which would be fine... if I didn't have to try and remember the other 35 other things that are all fluffed out in a hodge-podge of &quot;story effects&quot; that when combined as a whole... do absolutely nothing to define who your character is.And that's why I find I much prefer 5E feats of the &quot;non-half feat&quot; variety.&nbsp; I don't want seven abilities from seven different 3E/PF feats with seven different names and &quot;story&quot;, none of which combine together to form any sort of visual cohesion of character.&nbsp; I want seven abilities all under the one fluff heading of &quot;Observant&quot;, so that way my character can be known as the observant one of the group and that story fluff becomes an integral part of my character's identity.&nbsp; (And this is also why I see people here on the boards who constantly try and split feats up into half-feats + ability score bonuses as going exactly in the opposite direction of what I think feats should be, and I keep screaming in my head at them &quot;No, no, no!&nbsp; Wrong way!&nbsp; Other way! Go the other way!&quot; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ).So yeah... to make a long story short (Too late!)... I am a proponent of 5E's grouping of more abilities under single headings that define who you are than the smorgasboard nitpicking of tiny feature here, tiny feature there.&nbsp; Yes, you might be able to get your mechanical expression in exactly the place you want it... but the stories that define those expressions will have been like mixing all the different-colored paints together at once to create this goopy, ugly, grey color that no one would actually want to paint with.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8046324, member: 7006"] I've been running 5E since the beginning and have recently started playing in a PF1 game myself... and my issue with PF is the same issue I had with 3E/3.5 at the time-- trying to fluff every single bit of game mechanics produces nothing but "mongrelfolk" storytelling of who our character is and what they are doing. As [USER=6788736]@Flamestrike[/USER] said... when your PC ends up being a "Ruby Knight Vindicator/ Warblade/ Crusader with Divine metamagic/ Persistent spells, spamming martial manouvers with Wraithstrike"... those words end up meaning [I]nothing[/I]. For the fluff of the story to actually work with the mechanics of rolling dice we need to visualize in our mind's eye just how things look and what is happening. When it's as simple as visualizing that this particular d6 I'm rolling is a "handaxe" rather than a "shortsword"... everything is hunky dory. We easily suspend our disbelief. But when our sheet is filled with 37 different class features and feats, all of which give a +1 bonus here, a +1 bonus there... but all of them are fluffed to actually [I]represent[/I] something in the game world? It just become a morass of stuff we just ignore. My PC has a +1 to AC due to the "Dodge" feat. But I have never not once once ever though my character was a agile, "dodging" type of person. Why? Because that point of AC was added to everything else that raised my AC score and it's no longer referenced as a dodge, it's just that my AC is higher. I also have a +1 to weapon damage rolls due to "Arcane Strike". But on my sheet my longsword is written as "1d8+4". So I have to remind myself that my weapon is slightly magical doe to my character infusing some magic into it. Which would be fine... if I didn't have to try and remember the other 35 other things that are all fluffed out in a hodge-podge of "story effects" that when combined as a whole... do absolutely nothing to [I]define[/I] who your character is. And that's why I find I much prefer 5E feats of the "non-half feat" variety. I don't want seven abilities from seven different 3E/PF feats with seven different names and "story", none of which combine together to form any sort of visual cohesion of character. I want seven abilities all under the one fluff heading of "Observant", so that way my character can be known as the observant one of the group and that story fluff becomes an integral part of my character's identity. (And this is also why I see people here on the boards who constantly try and split feats up into half-feats + ability score bonuses as going exactly in the opposite direction of what I think feats should be, and I keep screaming in my head at them "No, no, no! Wrong way! Other way! Go the other way!" :) ). So yeah... to make a long story short (Too late!)... I am a proponent of 5E's grouping of more abilities under single headings that define who you are than the smorgasboard nitpicking of tiny feature here, tiny feature there. Yes, you might be able to get your mechanical expression in exactly the place you want it... but the stories that define those expressions will have been like mixing all the different-colored paints together at once to create this goopy, ugly, grey color that no one would actually want to paint with. [/QUOTE]

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