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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FinalSonicX" data-source="post: 5748701" data-attributes="member: 63787">I was all with Monte until he commented that perhaps the rules shouldn't handle the action economy and should instead handle the attacks themselves only. That's going to end up with incredibly inconsistent rulings that are going to frustrate people (myself included). What good are combat rules if the rules don't tell you what kind of common actions you can take and how frequently? if I don't know what in the world my options are in a given combat round until I ask the DM what I can do, then this will slow things down and render combat unplayable IMO. This is all of course ignoring the subjective nightmare design and balance becomes when you have no idea how a given DM might treat the action economy.I buy systems and rulebooks so that I can use them - that usually means they need to do most of the heavy lifting for me rather than basically dumping the work onto me. If my players keep having to ask what kinds of actions they can take on a given round, then it slows down the game and it increases the burden I as a DM must handle. Just tell me how long rounds are, give me a few simple action categories relating to common actions (moving, attacking, casting a spell, drinking a potion, etc), give me guidelines on how to fit unlisted actions into one of the categories, and tell me how many actions of each of these categories a player can normally take in a round. That is all I need to judge what a player can do - they know they can move, attack, cast a spell, etc. and if they want to do something funky then they can go ahead and ask. But please, just give us a robust and simple action economy which only needs my intervention when we want to go "off the tracks" and away from common actions. As a DM, I prefer to spend my time planning about the fun stuff - the  content! Let the combat rules be simple enough that the players and DM  alike have as little trouble as possible running and resolving combat.The role of the DM, IMO, is to present a setting and a story full of characters, monsters, treasures, locations, and conflicts to interact with. The players can make it their own and the DM can help facilitate their journey and present interesting situations so everyone can have fun. I really don't know who Monte was talking to that said they just roll for the monsters -that's incredibly simplistic and I have to wonder if the person that said that has ever even been a DM or played D&D for any significant period of time. At best this indicates to me that the roles of the DM and the player need to be better explained to newcomers to P&P RPGs.</blockquote>

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