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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3827944" data-attributes="member: 4937">You think that is simple?  One of a rogue's 'things' is that they are a trap finder.  It is a basic fundamental ability of rogues and without it, it just wouldn't feel like D&D.  But the common situation is 'there are no traps'.   Maybe one encounter in 10 is a trap.   So its entirely possible that several sessions will go by where one of the rogues basic fundamental abilities is useless.One of the cleric's 'things' is 'good against undead'.  It is a basic fundamental ability of clerics and without it, it just wouldn't feel like D&D.  But the common situation is 'there are no undead'.  Sure, you might have a dozen encounters in a row that are with undead, but you could also go for sessions at a time without encountering a single one.  So, one of the basic fundamental abilities of cleric's is useless.  And that's to say nothing of the fact that a cleric can reasonably want to take 'Extra Turning', the 'Sun Domain' and other things to be extra good against undead.  But, if no undead show up, all that is wasted.Conversely, as we've noted, if they do show up then the rogue is going, 'Heh, wait a minute.  Now my ability is useless'.  And if the traps show up and no rogue, then everyone is going, 'Heh, it's a trap.  Almost all of my abilities are useless!'.  The more options we give characters during character creation/advancement, the harder it is going to be to insure this doesn't happen.  Characters are going to want to play 'Pyromancers', only to meet up with fire elementals that are immune to thier main attacks.  Characters are going to want to play demon hunters, only to find no demons to fight for a long time.  Characters are going to want to play con artists, only to find no social situations for a long time.  Characters are going to want to play masters of the outdoors, only to be stuck in ruins for sessions at a time.  Characters are going to want to be sneaky, only to find no outlet for thier sneakiness.  And so forth.It wouldn't be hard to site similar failures of communication for D&D.  A classic example would be everyone shows up with an evil or shady PC and wants a gritty crime game, except for one or two players who wants to play noble Paladins.  Or, the DM plans for the PC's to work for an order of Paladins, only everyone shows up with the D&D equivalent of Hannibal Lector.  Open ended character creation can always lead to problems.  I had one GURPS campaign that fell apart because everyone had showed up with characters that had no heroic motivation and expected me to supply it for them.  One character was literally a paranoid recluse whose player expected me to find a reason why he wouldn't be afraid of the other characters.  On top of that, several players had created players whose loyalties were at cross purpose to each other.  So not only was the group actively try to avoid adventure as a whole, but the individual characters were actively working against each other and trying to avoid each other.  Even this might well have worked with extremely active players that were willing to create thier own stories, but they weren't and eventually I grew tired of the problems of story flow.What really gets me about the cited example is that the DM was responcible for creating both the adventure AND the character.</blockquote>

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