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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Halloween_Jack" data-source="post: 7674860" data-attributes="member: 6797866">I don't need you to explain dumb edition war memes to me, I'm familiar with all of them.Associated/dissociated mechanics is hot garbage. It's based on a notion of "immersion" that is out of touch with reality and likes it that way. In the very same essay the author acknowledges that hit points don't make sense either, but they get a pass because...look at the silly monkey!Spinozadude, I'm going to tell you about a great class I just invented. It's called the MAGIC Warlord. The MAGIC Warlord uses MAGIC to inspire the party to do MAGIC things, giving MAGIC bonuses and MAGIC free attacks and healing wounds with MAGIC! There, feel better now?The only indictment of "Verisimilitudinous Associated Immersion" that's needed is that every single related complaint vanishes instantly when that precious codeword, "magic," is invoked. Immersion geeks take some fractured notion of realism extremely, extremely seriously but as long as something is "magic" you don't care. Because magic doesn't have to make sense, does it? Except that it should. Why can a paladin only lay on hands 3/day? If magic is written down, why can't anyone who can read a spellbook's language memorize a spell? Why are spells "memorized," anyway? What god made magic work like that? How can you memorize a spell twice? I don't memorize a recipe in 2 or 3 different parts of my brain. Why is magic divided into 2 types? Why do clerics have to prepare spells, and why do they have limits at all? If D&D gods are aware of all things in their sphere of influence, why don't they give extra spells to clerics fighting for them when they really need them?I've put this question to the Alexandrian himself, and his smug, stupid answer was that if you want to know how and why the gods grant spells, go ask them. That’s a terrible answer, because you can! You can go to Pelor or Lord Ao and ask them why, and their answer will be whatever excuse the DM makes up. There is no "in-universe" logic behind why magic in D&D works the way it does. The answer is "Gary stole it from Jack Vance, and it worked well enough at the time." There are just as many "gamist" conceits related to your precious MAGIC as there are for martial skills, but you pretend they don't exist because you have this broken, clockwork-universe perspective on how a fictional world works. D&D is a fantasy game, not a virtual reality simulation. If you can't deal, maybe you should try a different game, where the designers cared very, very deeply about perfectly simulating many aspects of reality. Believe it or not, there are other games out there, and you don't have to "quit tabletop forever" if you don't like the latest edition of D&D.</blockquote>

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