Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="abirdcall" data-source="post: 7759439" data-attributes="member: 6748898">That just isn't true. There needs to be a goal that takes priority. Go back to what Mearls said that started this thread. "In terms of players, we focus much more on  narrative and identity, rather than specific, mechanical advantages. Who  you are is more important than what you do, to the point that your who  determines your what. In broad terms - and based on what we can observe  of the community from a variety of measures - we went from a community  that focused on mechanics and expertise, to one focused on socializing  and story telling. Mechanical expertise is an element of the game, but  no longer the sole focus. Ideally, it’s a balanced part of all the other  motivators. If balanaced correctly, every has their fun. Enjoyment  isn’t zero sum."Who determines what, not what determines who.Some people pick out mechanics and then create identity and narrative to support those mechanics. The designers decided to support those and focus on a community who wants to pick out identity and narrative and then have mechanics that support that. It is an important distinction.Mearls then goes on to say that it is nice if the people who prioritize mechanics can get to play too of course. The thrust though is that the player base has shifted, which makes sense as there are millions of new players. We're at peak D&D. The 3e and 4e players are a very small minority now.Do you see the distinction? One must come first in design. A common attitude I see among "optimizers" is the idea that identity and narrative are easily mutable. Create your "build" and then find a way to justify it with theme after. The game is no longer designed with that approach in mind. Like it or not, that is the reality.Right, and the middle ones are all very close so it makes sense for them to go back and forth. Warlock is not the most popular. The most popular by a wide margin are Fighter and Rogue. Warlock is still in the middle, a little higher than I would have thought at 3rd but still not close to Fighter and Rogue.Your argument was that complicated classes with a lot of options are the most popular. I don't think that applies to Fighter and Rogue.</blockquote>

Verification