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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wrecan" data-source="post: 5626953" data-attributes="member: 64825">Your hypothetical is of a character who is given a specific out-of-combat ability (a bonus to Diplomacy checks or making the target fall prone) and want to explain why he can't do this in combat.  And you are raising my prior statement that characters can demonstrate daily powers out of combat because daily powers are only intended to be used in combat.  Do you not understand how these situations differ?  If your character has a noncombat power, then mechanically it cannot be used in combat.  (That's why the "non-" modifies combat -- we don't call combat powers "nonsocializing" powers.)Combat powers can be approximated outside combat by using other mechanics (which is what I stated) -- Skills.  But noncombat powers cannot be approximated inside combat because everything that occurs in combat is a power.  And the explanation is simple: noncombat isn't measured in rounds or initiative.  Noncombat occurs over the duration of a short rest.  So the noncombat application of hypnotism has no action cost.  It requires more than a full uninterrupted round to invoke and that makes it inapplicable within combat.  In other words, that noncombat application requires an expenditure of time and mental preparedness that isn't possible to accomplish in combat.The specific power isn't the problem.  The problem is that there can be no noncombat-exclusive power that operates in combat.  That's what makes it, by definition, a noncombat power.  If it could be used in combat it would be a combat power.  What you did was take a noncombat power and create a character that ignored the "non-".  Is it really incredible to you that a person may be able to accomplish more out of combat than in combat? No, the problem is that the story you want to tell isn't justified by the mechanics, whether associated or disassociated.  You want a character with a power that doesn't exist.  Now, if you could find a power that made people fall prone in combat (like horrid whispers), and you took it, then you could call that another aspect of your hypnotism.  The more powers you took and attributed to hypnotism, the more potent a combat hynotist you become.This isn't an issue with disassociation, imo.  This is a problem when someone can't find a spell that does what they think it should do.  In every edition, it's been a given that combat is a time of incredible stress and you can't do things in the pressure of combat that you could do outside combat.  In 3rd edition, there are penalties for skill checks made in combat, and some things (like Diplomacy checks) that can never succeed if combat has begun.  What you're raising is no different.  It's not a problem of disassociation; it's a recognition that stuff that can be done in the calm of noncombat cannot be accomplished within combat.</blockquote>

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