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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 5758715" data-attributes="member: 58416">I would disagree that there's no longer a need to write down houserules because of the basic rules being lacking.  I see your point, and there are many areas in which I would agree, but there are also enough areas of 4E where I've felt the need to houserule because of either a lack of rules or a lack of what I felt were good rules that I overall disagree.Skill Challenges are an easy example for me.  In general, I've found that ignoring the written advice about them leads to a better experience for me.  In particular, I use a much different set of DCs. As for fireballs?  I do try to nod toward realism, but -for me personally- not when playing D&D 4th Edition.  That's mostly because, when I've tried to do so in the past, it lead to frustration.  Even though I prefer more of a sense of realism when gaming, I would not want 4E fireballs to set things on fire.  The reason being that I would feel the sense of balance and uniformity which 4E encourages would be thrown off by doing so.  If fire attacks have an occasional additional benefit to using them, but other energy types do not, it becomes better than the others.  If there were an additional narrative effect, it only seems fair to me that the other powers would also.   There should be situations in which cold is better than fire as well as situations in which fire is better than cold.  4E already has too many 'no-brainer' choices and options which are obviously better (in most cases) than others; I would not want to add more.If you're familiar with The Elder Scrolls Skyrim, I'll say I feel that is a good example of how to give everything a reason to be used.  Fire magic in that game does set things on fire; it's best for pure damage and setting things on fire.  Lightning magic does damage to magicka; it is good against enemy mages.  Cold damage slows opponents and can do damage to what the game calls stamind; it can be good against strong melee opponents and for crowd control.  Each element has ups and downs.  I feel like spending so much effort to work against the ideals that 4th is built upon and the already established playstyle to be more frustrating than simply using a different game when I want to nod toward realism.  I've come to be able to enjoy 4th edition mostly because I change my state of mind and how I think about a rpg experience when playing it.  Previously, trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole just lead to feeling bitter.</blockquote>

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