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!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 8609182" data-attributes="member: 7031982">Well, [USER=6799660]@Willie the Duck[/USER] just explained it.  Again.Assuming you aren't being disingenous (and to be honest, the emoji carry a whiff of disingenuous smirk) I'll try again:Sure, Mask of the Wild is probably more useful for rogues than breath weapon is.  Actually, that's a terrible example because rogues don't have any AoE attacks, so breath weapon is probably super useful.  Bet let's say we are choosing between Mask of the Wild and, say, proficiency in short swords, which rogues already have and is therefore totally worthless.The difference between this example and the ASI one is that, sure, Mask of the Wild is going to come in handy, and in some circumstances it may even save the day.  But it's still nowhere near as impactful as +1 on every single attack roll and every single damage roll.  (Not to mention various rogueish skills.).Equally (more?) importantly, while the difference in ASI is quantifiable, the difference between racial abilities is usually not quantifiable.  Which means players can subjectively justify whichever they like more.  Think the breath weapon would be cool?  Great, tell yourself that this is going to be super useful as a rogue.  Nobody can prove you wrong with math.Finally, a big part of the argument in favor of floating ASIs is that ability score modifiers don't really add much if any distinctive flavor between races.  Yes, I know people on the other side make the opposite claim.  But if you will take as sincere the claims of the former group, then it follows that they are more willing to accept racial abilities...even those that may have some class synergy...when those abilities are genuinely flavorful.  So even if Mask of the Wild is better for rogues and rangers than for, say, paladins, it also conveys a lot more distinctive Wood Elf flavor than a generic +2 Dex, and since perfect is the enemy of the good, we'll take good enough.Now, you don't have to be persuaded by these arguments, but I hope you will at least accept the sincerity of them.</blockquote>

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