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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5483725" data-attributes="member: 2067">Well, it's up to the DM.And that's one of the issues with relying on the DM to make a judgement call. It's up to the DM, and some DMs (especially, but not exclusively, new DMs) are very wary of un-balancing anything. Once you go to the level of &quot;Oh, I guess your fireball can melt the slippery ice in this combat,&quot; there's the fear of going to the level of &quot;Oh, I guess this fight wasn't challenging at all because you melted all the slippery ice, and now it's just a flat plain with some difficult terrain.&quot;As a pyromancer, I can't just be like, &quot;I want to light that stack of oily rags and dry twigs on fire,&quot; and have it happen, even though it would probably make sense and be awesome, because it might introduce some balance problems in an oily-rags-and-dry-twigs-heavy RPG setting (&quot;Kindleworld, the World Without A Match!&quot;). It's up to the DM to make a judgement calls. New DMs don't have that confidence, and even old hat DMs are sometimes loathe to go outside of the rules and do something interesting (like the Robot Chicken podcast where the &quot;powers only work on creatures&quot; concept came from). So, that's why I'm looking for something more hard-and-fast than Page 42. Someplace I can point to a third party (the rules), and say &quot;Okay, DM, even if I can't fiddle while Kindleworld burns, I want to do something with my fire other than cause damage. I want to affect the terrain elements in this combat.&quot;And while it was the pyromancer that gave me the idea, I think it's as applicable to any fighter who wants to cut a table in half with his greatsword or any cleric who wants to illuminate the darkness with the light of their deity, or any thief who wants to cut the ropes on the rickety bridge sending their enemies plummeting into the gorge. It's something that the game already has a little of (Terrain Powers in the DMGII are a start, but they still rely on the DM to set them up), but I want to hear how people are doing it.So, DracoSuave, what's your tale of awesome interactive terrain?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5483725, member: 2067"] Well, it's up to the DM. And that's one of the issues with relying on the DM to make a judgement call. It's up to the DM, and some DMs (especially, but not exclusively, new DMs) are very wary of un-balancing anything. Once you go to the level of "Oh, I guess your fireball can melt the slippery ice in this combat," there's the fear of going to the level of "Oh, I guess this fight wasn't challenging at all because you melted all the slippery ice, and now it's just a flat plain with some difficult terrain." As a pyromancer, I can't just be like, "I want to light that stack of oily rags and dry twigs on fire," and have it happen, even though it would probably make sense and be awesome, because it might introduce some balance problems in an oily-rags-and-dry-twigs-heavy RPG setting ("Kindleworld, the World Without A Match!"). It's up to the DM to make a judgement calls. New DMs don't have that confidence, and even old hat DMs are sometimes loathe to go outside of the rules and do something interesting (like the Robot Chicken podcast where the "powers only work on creatures" concept came from). So, that's why I'm looking for something more hard-and-fast than Page 42. Someplace I can point to a third party (the rules), and say "Okay, DM, even if I can't fiddle while Kindleworld burns, I want to do something with my fire other than cause damage. I want to affect the terrain elements in this combat." And while it was the pyromancer that gave me the idea, I think it's as applicable to any fighter who wants to cut a table in half with his greatsword or any cleric who wants to illuminate the darkness with the light of their deity, or any thief who wants to cut the ropes on the rickety bridge sending their enemies plummeting into the gorge. It's something that the game already has a little of (Terrain Powers in the DMGII are a start, but they still rely on the DM to set them up), but I want to hear how people are doing it. So, DracoSuave, what's your tale of awesome interactive terrain? [/QUOTE]

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