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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 1164660" data-attributes="member: 537">I didn't say that a paladin (or any other knight-in-shining-armour character) should never have to face a moral quandary. In fact, I'd say that moral quandaries present great opportunities for what players who like playing knights-in-shining-armour are after: a chance to take a stand on an issue, and feel righteous for doing it. (Some people turn righteous into self-righteous, but that's something else.)However, the fact remains that the whole structure of D&D, the rules, class system, and level system, is built around the assumption that the primary mission of most gaming groups is going to involve killing monsters and taking their stuff. What numbers increase when you go up levels? Your base attack bonus, saving throws and hit points. What do most of the feats revolve around? Ways to kick butt in combat, or survive getting your butt kicked. Where is the level of resolution in the skill point system greatest? In the skills that are directly relevant to combat, or adventuring: contrast Hide/Move Silently or Spot/Listen to something abstract like Profession (bartender). Where are 99% of the spells used? In combat, or adventuring. For every spell like fabricate or open/close, you have dozens like fireball, chain lightning, hold monster, etc; you're not going to see the sort of "everyday" spells in GURPS Grimoire in any core D&D product any time soon. Etcetera.None of this is to diminish the importance of non-combat encounters in your average D&D campaign. A game that doesn't feature anything except combat will quickly get old, if only because without an overall context or reason for it, combat becomes nothing more than just a pit fight. However, I'll stake money that when it comes to spotlight time, the non-combat stuff still usually takes second place to the big fights.Yes, you _can_ play a D&D game that doesn't involve violence at all, or not much of it. You can also play it diceless, if you like. That's a function of your own gaming group; and if that's what you want, more power to you. However, that doesn't change how the rules themselves are structured, and what style of play the game is aimed at.</blockquote>

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