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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willowhaunt" data-source="post: 2238505" data-attributes="member: 22961">Here's the issue:D&D, by the definition of being a roleplaying game, seeks to simulate every situation the could come up under its rules. Chutes and Ladders offers a limited number of possibilities. D&D has been advertised for quite a long time as being a game of innumerable possibilities. To relegate it to one role is to belittle the advantage of an RPG over a computer game. Most computer games have the same problem of making their settings separate entities from their combat rules. Final Fantasy, anybody? Also, a general response:What I'm most worried about isn't PvP or Party vs. NPC, though those are important issues. I'm worried that the magic system makes viable world building impossible. Why don't mages rule FR, Eberron, or anywhere else? Even of they didn't why don't they just Charm, Suggestion, or Dominate their kings? Or other peoples' kings? Sure, the orc horde could be coming down from the mountain, but why not suggestion the orc king into giving strategically bad orders to his forces and run them right into a trap? Why not, as the ruler, or the advisor to the ruler, of a realm, control your subjects with Detect Thoughts, Scrying, Charms, or a long list of powerful, noncombat enchantments and divinations? Why not, while you are at it, have the clerics resurrect all the important dead people? They can help with the scrying, too! Maybe fighters and their ilk can take mages in a straight fight, but without mage/cleric aid of their own, they'll have a tough time of it. Can they find the mage? A mere Disguise Self or Alter self could make that tough, not to mention Teleporting (or Greater Teleporting) away when things get rough, or even before things get rough? A simple, first level spell called Alarm can tip any mage off to the approach of an enemy long before they reach him or her. Leaving aside whether D&D is about deep storytelling or violent spelunking, I think it's just built on some bad assumptions. The system might be fine as it is, imbalance can be realistic, but I think I'd have to rebuild the setting from its very foundations. The setting doesn't confrom to the rules, and I think that's the major problem I'm having here. It's also not fun for any player to just be a mind-thrall to the party mage, or an NPC mage, or just any plain ol' mage. That's a role nobody wants to play.As far as game balance, yes, magic is balanced to encounter levels and challenge rating, and thank you for pointing out that the system for approximating challenges would turn on its ear if magic was weakened or removed, but I think, again, that D&D has more possibilities than just being a strategy game in which you explore dungeons, kill stuff, and get treasure. If I wanted to run a dungeon crawl, I think the system is perfectly balanced. To build a world, to run an intrigue/secrecy/political campaign, or to make the game fun for everyone involved at every level of play, that's what I'm worried about.Finally:Yes, I know that D&D has had this problem since the beginning. I've only noticed it recently, though. That discovery is what lead me to ask the question on these boards.-Willowhaunt</blockquote>

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