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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cyber-Dave" data-source="post: 6922210" data-attributes="member: 82132">It is not that an ability check makes it less problematic. I gave a number of different possible resolutions to that scenario. Only one of them ended in an ability check. One of them had the DM giving away the information automatically. You are cherry picking data and missing the point as a result. The DM's ability to choose whether the power would work, and to make that choice based on the needs of his/her story, is what makes the power less problematic. The example was a bad example, as the rules as written don't seem to provide any more detail than "humanoid" one way or the other. The (subjective) issue and resolution it was meant to represent, however, still exist (at least to me). A specific problem has not arisen as of yet. That, however, isn't the issue. The issue is that its open ended nature *could* become problematic (and in many groups, likely would). For example, if the quest ever has us hunting down and eliminating enemies in a complex, maze like, but small area, and real failure is meant to be an option (which would then affect a future series of events), I could see a DM getting frustrated with this ability.    That is a false dichotomy. The answer is both. The class feature is annoying, as there are too many open ended ways in which it can be used which would become annoying. The manner in which a player uses it is annoying, as it would be the specific use which would highlight why the open ended list of potentially annoying uses is annoying. And, your notion that the problem only occurs when a player is bored is pretty much an affective fallacy. It can happen for any number of reasons. Maybe boredom. Maybe not. Even when not, the player's use could create frustration on the part of a DM due to all the additional factors he has to consider when preparing the game. Making the amount of data that the ability automatically provides more acute, and giving the DM greater oversight over what the power could potentially reveal, would help alleviate my issue with the power.</blockquote>

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