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<blockquote data-quote="GSHamster" data-source="post: 6275300" data-attributes="member: 20187">Here's how I see it. Let's say that you want a character to be able to do a &quot;cool move&quot;:Powers&nbsp;- can only be used a limited number of times (per period)&nbsp;- usually has an effect that cannot be replicated unless you know the power (so same class)Mundane abilities&nbsp;- can be used as often as possible, so long as triggering conditions are met&nbsp;- can be attempted by anyone, abilities generally just make you more proficientPretty much the only mundane &quot;power&quot; that has been widely accepted by the player base is Barbarian Rage. Every other &quot;power&quot; must be magic in origin, or people complain.The thing is that &quot;can be used as often as possible, so long as triggering conditions are met&quot; is insanely powerful from a balance point of view. So mundane abilities are relatively weak to balance, or the conditions become very hard to reliably set up. As a result, the &quot;cool moves&quot; tend to get given to the magic users, because the game can easily balance them by saying you can only do a &quot;cool move&quot; 2x per encounter or whatever.As a result of this dynamic, if a designer wants to give a class some &quot;cool moves&quot; which are unique to that class, she is strongly pushed towards making that class a magic user.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GSHamster, post: 6275300, member: 20187"] Here's how I see it. Let's say that you want a character to be able to do a "cool move": Powers - can only be used a limited number of times (per period) - usually has an effect that cannot be replicated unless you know the power (so same class) Mundane abilities - can be used as often as possible, so long as triggering conditions are met - can be attempted by anyone, abilities generally just make you more proficient Pretty much the only mundane "power" that has been widely accepted by the player base is Barbarian Rage. Every other "power" must be magic in origin, or people complain. The thing is that "can be used as often as possible, so long as triggering conditions are met" is insanely powerful from a balance point of view. So mundane abilities are relatively weak to balance, or the conditions become very hard to reliably set up. As a result, the "cool moves" tend to get given to the magic users, because the game can easily balance them by saying you can only do a "cool move" 2x per encounter or whatever. As a result of this dynamic, if a designer wants to give a class some "cool moves" which are unique to that class, she is strongly pushed towards making that class a magic user. [/QUOTE]

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