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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5733507" data-attributes="member: 2067">To each their own, of course. <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=":)" /> I think each of these concepts fares better as a way to play a different class, rather than as a class all their own, myself.For me, it's not enough. There's no functional difference in the way they actually work. That's a problem for me. It's a problem because, for me, anything that is just fiction, without a mechanical backing, is functionally empty and devoid of significance. It is a constant reminder that I am playing a game, not pretending to be a character. It makes me feel that I am numbers on a sheet rather than an imaginary character in an imaginary world. It's not specific enough. It's not significant enough. It's too empty and meaningless. It's sort of like the atmosphere generated by that Gears of War commercial with Gary Jules in the background. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8]gears of war (mad world) - YouTube[/ame]It's empty and meaningless. The game isn't actually like that. The commercial is great, but it's nonsense, it has no bearing on reality. Flavor text without mechanical support is like that to me: vapid, shallow, weirdly disconnecting. When it says I am shouting at the guy on the tin, I don't expect it to do the exact same thing as someone who is channeling divine power to knit wounds. And yet...there it is.Sure, I buy it. In my mind, that's part of the problem, though: mechanics that are WAY too intricate. That's true. The mechanic isn't meant to evoke earlier editions as much as it is meant to dissociate the combat role from the class, thus ensuring that, when you are making your character, you are not limited by what the party "needs," and can design the character you want. Once those two are divorced, playing a "tough rogue" and a "ranged fighter" become mechanically viable as they are, rather than just empty story gloss on foreign mechanics. Yeah, for that goal, I'd just say choosing your combat role at character creation should be enough. Of course, instead of combat role, I'd like to see a broader concept of adventure roles, encompassing adventure-level challenges rather than combat-encounter-level challenges, but that's sort of another thread.</blockquote>

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