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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 6828563" data-attributes="member: 6795602">I am with mellored on one thing.  I don't know anyone in game that actively rejects buffs from whatever source.  While I can definietely see the philosophical pitfalls of such a thing, I really can't imagine such coming up in play much at all.  People accept when a buff is offered and don't tend to think about things like player agency at the table unless the thing in questions causes a direct action that they have no control over. In fact I'd venture to say that there are two categories we could place abilities that affect player agency into and one type is much more readily accepted than the other.Static Number buffs to attack or AC or Damage or movement (etc)1.  Such buffs do not rob players of any ability to use their actions or have their character to do what they want their character to do.2.  Such buffs do rob the player the agency of explaining why his character is attacking better or doing more damage etc and forces a certain narrative that the player could dislike into the situation.  Most players accept that magic is a valid non-agency depriving reason for a buff.Buff that increasing the players ability to do more things such as granting an action or attack or movement before combat begins1.  Such buffs do not rob the players of any ability to use their actions or have their character do what they want their character to do.2.  Such buffs suffer the same problem as buffs above but they have one additional benefit, the player has more things to be the agent over because of these style of buffs.Buffs that force a player to do a certain thing1.  I can't think of any buff that does such a thing.  I don't think such buffs exist.  Charm would be an example of a spell like this but I wouldn't consider charm a buff ever.So yes, while philosophically a player is giving up a slight bit of agency for any mundane buff insofar as he must accept whatever fluff is causing the buff as valid and applying to his character, such a thing is generally overlooked for 1 of a number of reasons.1.  player doesn't really care whether his character found the fighter an inspiring leader before such fluff was called into the light.  Once such fluff is called into the light, if the player doesn't have any prior convictions relating to whether his character could be inspired by the fighter then he most likely won't even notice that agency being taken away and won't care about it being taken away.2.  player likes the buff and will play toward the in game fluff because he likes the buff.3.  player finds the identified fluff problematic but easily finds some other fluff that can explain why the ability still works on his character.Typically the only reason a player would dislike this is:The fluff being given for the mundane buff is something that directly opposes something important the player has already envisioned for his character and there is no acceptable alternative fluff that can explain it.The important thing to remember is that their are two kinds of player agency that can be taken away and that one is more problematic than the other and that the other is more nuanced in when and where it causes a problem.</blockquote>

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