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Realism vs. Believability and the Design of HPs, Powers and Other Things
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<blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 5881330"><p>As I said, the base elements of race, class, themes, backgrounds would provide you with the ability to participate in all aspects of the game <strong>to some degree</strong>. However, beyond that point or if you went really in-depth in your character creation, you could focus yourself on one aspect.</p><p></p><p>A <em>realistic</em> humanoid character is going to have more skills than simply "swinging a sword" and even that ability will translate into some other skills that are useful outside of combat. Playing a guy who can only swing a sword, which obviously should be an <em>option</em>, does not really do well for generating a believable character. </p><p></p><p>I'm not interested in balance in these areas. I'm fine with X class having more combat ability and Y class having more social ability. Of course NO class should have 100% in all three areas, but at the end of the day if the group builds a diverse party, they should roughly be able to cover all the bases. That <em>could</em> come in the form of a party that is 100/0/0, 0/100/0, 0/0/100, or it could come in a form of 50/20/30, 20/35/45, 10/10/80.</p><p></p><p>IMO, as a default, no class should be 100/0/0 or 0/100/0 or 0/0/100. There should be some base spread to give players some ability to partake of all parts of the game, and allow levels of customization to adjust those numbers.</p><p></p><p>As I said, I'm NOT suggesting every character gets to participate equally in all aspects, that's unrealistic. I'm just saying that every character should have some default ability to participate. No class should say to players "If you play this class, you can't play 1/3rd of the game." In a typical dungeon for example, the mage is the go-to guy for dealing with magical impediments(knowledge: arcana/use magic device), the fighter is the guy who'll keep you from getting lost or tell you what stone to hit to bring the place down(dungeoneering), the rogue will help you avoid dying to hidden stuff(find/disable traps) and the cleric will help you know if the glowing gem you just found is actually a portal to hell or just a glowing rock(knowledge: religion). Each character is skilled in a different area, but over the course of the dungeon, all of them were able to bring something useful to the table <em>besides</em> combat ability.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sunseeker, post: 5881330"] As I said, the base elements of race, class, themes, backgrounds would provide you with the ability to participate in all aspects of the game [B]to some degree[/B]. However, beyond that point or if you went really in-depth in your character creation, you could focus yourself on one aspect. A [I]realistic[/I] humanoid character is going to have more skills than simply "swinging a sword" and even that ability will translate into some other skills that are useful outside of combat. Playing a guy who can only swing a sword, which obviously should be an [I]option[/I], does not really do well for generating a believable character. I'm not interested in balance in these areas. I'm fine with X class having more combat ability and Y class having more social ability. Of course NO class should have 100% in all three areas, but at the end of the day if the group builds a diverse party, they should roughly be able to cover all the bases. That [I]could[/I] come in the form of a party that is 100/0/0, 0/100/0, 0/0/100, or it could come in a form of 50/20/30, 20/35/45, 10/10/80. IMO, as a default, no class should be 100/0/0 or 0/100/0 or 0/0/100. There should be some base spread to give players some ability to partake of all parts of the game, and allow levels of customization to adjust those numbers. As I said, I'm NOT suggesting every character gets to participate equally in all aspects, that's unrealistic. I'm just saying that every character should have some default ability to participate. No class should say to players "If you play this class, you can't play 1/3rd of the game." In a typical dungeon for example, the mage is the go-to guy for dealing with magical impediments(knowledge: arcana/use magic device), the fighter is the guy who'll keep you from getting lost or tell you what stone to hit to bring the place down(dungeoneering), the rogue will help you avoid dying to hidden stuff(find/disable traps) and the cleric will help you know if the glowing gem you just found is actually a portal to hell or just a glowing rock(knowledge: religion). Each character is skilled in a different area, but over the course of the dungeon, all of them were able to bring something useful to the table [I]besides[/I] combat ability. [/QUOTE]
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Realism vs. Believability and the Design of HPs, Powers and Other Things
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