Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herremann the Wise" data-source="post: 5944814" data-attributes="member: 11300">Firstly, an excellent and informative post!And this is kind of where I was going with "artificial", in that there is no direct in-game reason aside from that similar to my 3-year old son at the moment, just "because". [His inflection with that word is priceless by the way.] I will certainly concede that this gives players the flexibility to come up with any in-game reason which again is a real positive for a certain style of play but a serious negative for another style of play.But the swinginess they are "fixing" is undone by more powerful daily powers and action points (or the lack thereof). You say encouraging where as a different interpretation would say forcing or even straining to suit a particular style of play. Personally I would prefer a little more flexibility here.And this is where you are right that it is contentious, being elegant for some and an artificial kludge for others. When it comes to meta decisions that affect the overall tenor of the game, I think there is room for deciding that some things (such as one character starts with the power of a prince while the rest of the party are not) might not be in the interest of player group cohesion. I would prefer such things are left to the players and GM rather than mandated by the rules (which in effect with rule zero is what happens). The comparison of BAB increase and half-level increase is an interesting one though. One is more finely grained and so informs you that certain classes increase in an ability more easily than others. I appreciate this little bit of mathematical tweaking that represents something about the campaign world, even though the mechanic is purely a "game mechanic". The blanket half-level bonus however does not attend to any such differentiation and so is more coarsely grained and less representative with no mathematical tweak. Again I suppose this is elegant for some but frustratingly simplistic for others.The bottom line is that such things are game mechanics. However, it is nice when these mechanics are given a little bit of tweaking to represent something about the campaign world. That little "nod to Pythagoras" is perhaps enough to distract players like me that all is well and believable in Elfville.This is true. One man's trash is another man's treasure and all that. On a sidenote, I think my preference is for a more freeform sort of initiative where characters and creatures have a differing number of actions (standard, minor and then a variable number of swift actions) that may be spent across a round. You still have your turn where you can perform "actions" but when it is not your turn, you can perform standard/minor/swift reactions that may defend against another's action or take offensive advantage from a particular situation. Just saying. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Really well expressed!!!I think this is true too. Personally, there is a baseline of where I can best express my character in terms of "inhabiting" him or her. Just as I don't feel the need to worry about my character's breathing, I'm not overly concerned with the baseline inherent expectations (such as AC, Fort/Reflex/Will saves/defenses). If my character has an action that can momentarily enhance their "will", then this is when I'll feel the need to express my character doing something above that baseline, but otherwise such basic things don't need to be expressed (in my opinion).Some of us hope that D&D can get there one day, one edition (and hopefully this one). Even if it is through advanced rules modules. It would be nice if the core rules are as unobtrusive as possible so that this can be achieved.On this, I have always found it possible to blend the two. I have those situations and complications at the ready to be "played" when appropriate but I'm just as happy to let the story tell itself when such is what happens.Best RegardsHerremann the Wise</blockquote>

Verification