D&D General Requesting permission to have something cool

[Minigiant]

???

I guess define 'supernatural'; there's plenty of options in Pathfinder 2e for Martials that don't have explicit magical abilities, and are mainly super athletics, incredible inventors and investigators, perfect stealth machines, etc.

Don't drag them into this! Pathfinder 2e is a game where the Martial / Caster divide doesn't exist and has quite a number of ways to have non-supernatural based Martials! (Assuming that 'has magic items for support' counts.)

I didn't say Pathfinder has a Martial Caster trouble nor a lack of Martial options.

Just that like WOTC, Paizo puts more focus on the magic than the not magic.

Because designing casters, magic characters, and spells is easier and flashier

 

[haakon1]

I thought people were only playing vanilla 5E with no 3PP support?

I thought there’s only one version of D&D and it’s called 5e, and it’s not (NOT!) changing at all in 2024.

 

[haakon1]

It appears that there is a vast demand for products that people refuse to use, and, moreover, there is a vast supply of products that cannot be used in any games. I feel like economics has lied to me!

Some people buy RPG material to read it, not use it.

And there’s always demand from some players for the “Angel Summoner Supreme Splatbook”, but not every DM will allow it in their BMX campaign.

 

[Oofta]

I thought there’s only one version of D&D and it’s called 5e, and it’s not (NOT!) changing at all in 2024.

One Edition to outsell them all, One Edition to remind us of them, One Edition to bring them all and in the darkness combine them.

 

[Lanefan]

I have never liked the 0-level PC rules. To me, it's the equivalent of creating a group of lemmings and having them blunder into every trap, curse and monster in the dungeon (all while Yakkity Sax plays in the background) until eventually you reach the end by process of attrition and the lucky toon you are on when you do gets to be a level one PC.

I'm sure it's fun for someone, but it's a waste of time for me. Don't bore us, get to the chorus!

In many aspects of life (including music!) I've really come to dislike the bolded phrase and what it stands for.

The journey - the low-level play, the long intro to the song, the slow-build of tension in a novel - is often as or even more interesting than is the end destination or "payoff".

 

[haakon1]

Indeed. The problem with 3.5 is that eventually every player was a caster and DMs couldn't stand the quantity of magic nonsense.

That never happened in any campaign I was in, and I still DM 3.5e now.

Not every player’s prime concern is trying to outdo the other players on DPS.

Also, not every DM runs a 15 minute workday or high-level campaign. At levels I actually play (1-12), with adventures that are sometimes on a deadline, wandering monsters, foes that won’t let you rest in the dungeon, and foes who may organize a counterattack, “nova and rest for the night” classes aren’t clearly better than “I can do this all day” classes.

 

[haakon1]

This. I've only rejected a homebrew option a player brought me once, and it was only because the balance was egregiously bad, like fighter attack progression with paladin smites on a full caster chassis bad.

Oh, can I play that!

 

[Vaalingrade]

Just that like WOTC, Paizo puts more focus on the magic than the not magic.

Because designing casters, magic characters, and spells is easier and flashier

Don't tell that to the PF2 caster fans who think they were nerfed into non-existence.

You'd think they were back to doing one spell and back to crossbows for the rest of the day to hear them tell it. Probably because ninja and inventors and gunslingers are allowed to do things without spells.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The journey - the low-level play, the long intro to the song, the slow-build of tension in a novel - is often as or even more interesting than is the end destination or "payoff".

When done by people who know that they're doing, this can be true.

On the other hand, you have the pointless slogs where you aren't capable or heroic, where the opening strains get repetitive as an amateur tries so hard to duplicate a master, and dear god, the obnoxious rambling to over describe the main character looking into a mirror and telling you the type and texture of their clothes and the make and model of their car until you understand finally why the slush pile existed.

 

[haakon1]

]
these posts serve as a warning to new DMs that they need to pay attention to martial/caster balance

Actually, they don’t.

I’ve been DMing since before most 5e players were born, I’ve played every edition, I’ve walked the hallowed ground of both Lake Geneva and Renton, and I say unto ye new DM’s:

By the power vested in me by Rule Zero, I grant that you also have Rule Zero. Do what thou the DM wilt shalt be the whole of the law.

And furthermore I say unto you, if you are running a rules system as written by the pros of Lake Geneva, Renton, Bellevue, or even other places undreamt of beyond the known world, you’re doing it right.

You need not “correct” the words of Gygax, Cook, Tweet, Mearls, or all the others.

But you can if you want, for Gygax, in his finite but significant wisdom, granted YOU the title of Dungeon Master and the power of Rule Zero.

Go forth and multiply, and may your players save the world!