NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5636590" data-attributes="member: 42582">That paradigm is not actually a 4e paradigm. It's one that, if I recall correctly, you coined.The 4e paradigm that Crazy Jerome and I discussed (and maybe others whom I've forgotten) is that anything extra a spell or other power can do whether inside or outside combat is governed by page 42. That is, (i) it's not undefined (of course there can also be undefined houseruling and improvisation, but that aspect of roleplaying is not remotely unique to 4e), and (ii) it has nothing to do with a combat/out-of-combat divide. In fact (and as Crazy Jerome mentioned upthread), the DMG presents page 42 as being relevant primarily to combat. It is DMG2, in its discussion of skill challenges, that talks seriously about using page 42 + powers in non-combat contexts (although many, many players noticed the possibility before DMG2 was published).At this level of generality, this statement is not true. And I'm not at all suggesting that you're being deliberately slack or provocative in your wording, but mistaken descriptions of the 4e mechanics are (in my view) part of the problem in having serious discussions of the game between those who play it and those who don't.4e powers have keywords. Keywords are crucial for understanding how the powers relate to the fiction. For example, a power with the fire keyword, that deals fire damage, can set fire to a tree. A power with the weapon keyword, that deals only untyped damage, cannot set fire to a tree. I think this is fairly obvious, but even if it weren't it is explained unambiguously (although perhaps in a slightly odd location) in the DMG's discussion of using powers against objects.As I noted in my discussion upthread of the Vincent Baker blog that frozenwastes linked to upthread:"Rightward arrows", in this passage, means decisions taken in the course of action resolultion that involve reasoning from the fiction to the mechanics. "Boxes" refer to mechanical gamestates. (The terminology is from the Vincent Baker blog).</blockquote>

Verification