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<blockquote data-quote="Sonofapreacherman" data-source="post: 3372845" data-attributes="member: 2315">sjmiller.In the first article I state ... &quot;there's no harm in admitting that such benefits don't inspire the same enthusiasm as a new special ability&quot;. That's all. There's no harm in admitting that you want a special ability &quot;cookie&quot; at every level. There's also no harm in not wanting that cookie. What you infer, however, is that I consider gaining new spell levels to be &quot;insignificant&quot;. That's a huge assumptive leap on your part and an incorrect one. It erroneously puts a word into my mouth that was neither said nor implied.If that's all you need to enjoy each new level, more power to you. But what you want and what the guy next to you wants (to enjoy the game) are two completely different universes, as already expressed by several people on this thread alone.At no point did I say that a level without a special ability is not a &quot;good&quot; or &quot;fun&quot; level. I have said that a character class with special abilities during 18 or 19 out of 20 levels causes those levels in which no abilities are gained to stand out like a beacon, but that is not the same thing at all.Actually, several people on this thread have already &quot;gotten&quot; it just fine. Dead level abilities are meant to encourage role-playing, to thematically differentiate the character classes more, and to offer an imperceptibly powerful, non-combat oriented special ability &quot;cookie&quot; for those who crave one at every level. If you are not one of those people, then by all means, ignore the cookie jar. It shouldn't even be a temptation to you. As per your post, calculating bab, hp, saves, and skill ranks is reward enough.That's an easy one. Even though dead level abilities have an imperceptible impact on game balance, for some people (quite a lot actually) enjoying Dungeons &amp; Dragons has nothing to do with &quot;game balance&quot;. That's not to say they don't appreciate and follow the rules, but that they enjoy different aspects of the game more than tracking numbers. This could be a stretch, but I think they might even enjoy &quot;role-playing&quot;. Sorry, I'm being cheeky now. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Well I can't take credit for coining the term. It existed long before these articles were a twinkle in my eye.Not at all, you are making perfect sense, for yourself ... which is all that matters here. Dead level abilities are optional. You can take them or you can leave them. Simple as that. It's not a debate. It's a preference. I hope that helps.Kolja</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sonofapreacherman, post: 3372845, member: 2315"] sjmiller. In the first article I state ... [i]"there's no harm in admitting that such benefits don't inspire the same enthusiasm as a new special ability"[/i]. That's all. There's no harm in [i]admitting[/i] that you want a special ability "cookie" at every level. There's also no harm in [i]not[/i] wanting that cookie. What you infer, however, is that I consider gaining new spell levels to be "insignificant". That's a huge assumptive leap on your part and an incorrect one. It erroneously puts a word into my mouth that was neither said nor implied. If that's all you need to enjoy each new level, more power to you. But what you want and what the guy next to you wants (to enjoy the game) are two completely different universes, as already expressed by several people on this thread alone. At no point did I say that a level without a special ability is not a "good" or "fun" level. I have said that a character class with special abilities during 18 or 19 out of 20 levels causes those levels in which no abilities are gained to stand out like a beacon, but that is not the same thing at all. Actually, several people on this thread have already "gotten" it just fine. Dead level abilities are meant to encourage role-playing, to thematically differentiate the character classes more, and to offer an imperceptibly powerful, non-combat oriented special ability "cookie" for those who crave one at every level. If you are not one of those people, then by all means, ignore the cookie jar. It shouldn't even be a temptation to you. As per your post, calculating bab, hp, saves, and skill ranks is reward enough. That's an easy one. Even though dead level abilities have an imperceptible impact on game balance, for some people (quite a lot actually) enjoying Dungeons & Dragons has nothing to do with "game balance". That's not to say they don't appreciate and follow the rules, but that they enjoy different aspects of the game more than tracking numbers. This could be a stretch, but I think they might even enjoy "role-playing". Sorry, I'm being cheeky now. :D Well I can't take credit for coining the term. It existed long before these articles were a twinkle in my eye. Not at all, you are making perfect sense, for yourself ... which is all that matters here. Dead level abilities are optional. You can take them or you can leave them. Simple as that. It's not a debate. It's a preference. I hope that helps. Kolja [/QUOTE]

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