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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9673551" data-attributes="member: 7006">I would imagine its because WotC probably determined most of their millions of players care more about ease-of-use and the story results of using a feature than needing more unique mechanics to acquire and organize those features.Once a player determines that the story of who their character is and what adventures they go on matters more in the long run that the organization and numbering system of when they can use their special powers... the need for mechanical differentiation becomes a lot less.When you have an ability that is 'at-will' but you only use it like 3 or 4 times an adventuring day, or you have 'spell points' that result in you using that same ability 3 or 4 times per day, or you have a 'spell slot' system that only allows you to use it 4 times per day... there ends up being no practical difference.&nbsp; You're still using X ability 4 times per adventuring day.&nbsp; And for every player the narrative produced within the story is the same-- the character used X ability four times and it resulted in some change in the story. Whether it's at-will abilities or spell points or spell slots or some other esoteric system... they all do the same thing.&nbsp; They give the player some organizational format to keep track of for when they can use said ability.&nbsp; And that's merely bookkeeping.&nbsp; And I suspect the designers of D&amp;D long ago said that players spending time with their heads buried in their character sheet worrying about bookkeeping takes away from the actual game of what their characters are doing in the story.&nbsp; So they aren't going to bother creating new bookkeeping systems that they have to try and balance around when there's a perfectly serviceable bookkeeping method for &quot;supernatural ability&quot; that is tried and true.And if some players want something different?&nbsp; That's what the OGL/CC/DMs Guild is for.&nbsp; They can make or find whatever weird-ass mechanical bookkeeping system they want to differentiate their psionics from their arcane magic from their divine magic from their primal magic from their tinkering technology etc. etc.&nbsp; And thus WotC doesn't have to do it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 9673551, member: 7006"] I would imagine its because WotC probably determined most of their millions of players care more about ease-of-use and the story results of using a feature than needing more unique mechanics to acquire and organize those features. Once a player determines that the story of who their character is and what adventures they go on matters more in the long run that the organization and numbering system of when they can use their special powers... the need for mechanical differentiation becomes a lot less. When you have an ability that is 'at-will' but you only use it like 3 or 4 times an adventuring day, or you have 'spell points' that result in you using that same ability 3 or 4 times per day, or you have a 'spell slot' system that only allows you to use it 4 times per day... there ends up being no practical difference. You're still using X ability 4 times per adventuring day. And for every player the narrative produced within the story is the same-- the character used X ability four times and it resulted in some change in the story. Whether it's at-will abilities or spell points or spell slots or some other esoteric system... they all do the same thing. They give the player some organizational format to keep track of for when they can use said ability. And that's merely bookkeeping. And I suspect the designers of D&D long ago said that players spending time with their heads buried in their character sheet worrying about bookkeeping takes away from the actual game of what their characters are doing in the story. So they aren't going to bother creating new bookkeeping systems that they have to try and balance around when there's a perfectly serviceable bookkeeping method for "supernatural ability" that is tried and true. And if some players want something different? That's what the OGL/CC/DMs Guild is for. They can make or find whatever weird-ass mechanical bookkeeping system they want to differentiate their psionics from their arcane magic from their divine magic from their primal magic from their tinkering technology etc. etc. And thus WotC doesn't have to do it. [/QUOTE]

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