Specific powers: will they curb creativity?

[Heselbine]

This is far, far from an anti-4e rant. I've started playing 4e and I love it. I won't go back to 3e. This isn't an attack on 4e, it's a discussion point.

Question is, with very specific powers which say "attack and then move" or "attack one enemy, move and then attack another" and the like, is it going to cut down in play the freedom of players to come up with crazy stunts? Are they not going to jump over the barrel, tumble past the guards and so on because they haven't got a power that specifically allows them to do it?

I suspect not, but I would be very interested to hear what everyone else thinks.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I don't think so, since there they have nicely laid out the rules for such things as well... So, I imagine it be almost more along the lines of:

"Uses minor action, jumps over table, uses power (attacks and shifts away)"

So, really the power is simply a additional part of the stunt.

 

[Zerakon]

I think the question really is will players be searching through their powers like puzzle pieces to fit the situation, and upon not finding an appropriate puzzle piece, will they try a non-enumerated stunt or fall back to using something less interesting?

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I don't think the powers will limit creativity, but my groups have never been that gung-ho about stunts like that in the past, so I'm not sure I'm most qualified to answer that question.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The powers won't stop people from doing that.

They will, however, mess with the psychology of doing that, at least for some players.

Because why bother relying on DM adjudication to resolve your diving pain thrust, when you KNOW how effective this exploit you can use will be, and the DM will allow it to be as effective as it says it is?

Players who dig the stunts and wackiness will still do 'em.

DMs who dig it will encourage 'em.

But the default baseline will probably be "Why bother making the DM come up with something, when I've got 20 somethings here that the DM doesn't have to come up with?"

This is probably a good thing.