NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lonely Tylenol" data-source="post: 2699368" data-attributes="member: 18549">These are handled by mechanics, but different ones.  Dave the barbarian has Power Attack, which means he has training or experience that have caused him to alter his swing instinctively when he fights something that seems easy to hit.  Dave doesn't consciously calculate the best precision/damage ratio, but he has a feel for it after many hours of bashing orcs with his greatclub.  Dave also knows that if the orc is looking the other way, it makes it easier to brain him with the club.  Dave doesn't know that he gets a +2 bonus for flanking, but he does know that if the orc is fighting Ed the fighter, he's more likely to look the other way.To a certain extent, things like good tactics are not covered by the rules.  It's hard to play a character who has good tactics if you don't.  This is a hole in the rules, rather than an example that shows how the rules are irrelevent to character decisions.  To some extent this has been recognized and attempts have been made to patch it.  For example, tactical feats from Complete Warrior.  Overall, however, the reason why the hole is there is because it would be incredibly difficult and intricate to try to simulate good tactics using game mechanics, and so they left a place where character and player knowledge is blurred, to simplify the game.  They also defined places where character and player knowledge are discrete, namely skill checks.edit: But anyway, the lack of a mechanic covering a situation does not imply that mechanics are disposable.  The Use Rope skill is there for a reason.  Bringing your book of knots to a session doesn't allow you to bypass using the skill.  Neither does being a diplomat IRL allow you to bypass using the Diplomacy skill.  Doing either is cheating.  I suspect it seems obvious why the Use Rope example is cheating, and for anyone who agrees with that, please note the parallel to the Diplomacy skill example.</blockquote>

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