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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6582943" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Like some other posters upthread, I'm curious about what "anything" means here.</p><p></p><p>I couldn't declare, as an action, "I run the orc through". All that really meant was that I got to make an attack roll: the resolution was no different from if I declared "I swing at the orc" or "I attack the orc".</p><p></p><p>At most tables I played at, a 1st level fighter also couldn't declare "I attack the nearest orc, sidestep 10', and attack the other orc". Even when mutiple attacks came into play (via specialisation, or at 7th level) the possibility of moving between attacks was never very clear.</p><p></p><p>The 1st level fighter in my 4e game had a power that let him do exactly what I've just described. (Passing Attack.) His daily power (Comeback Strike) let him do 2W damage and spend a healing surge. In AD&D I never encountered a GM who let the player of the fighter declare "I am going to make a might attack and, if I hit, I'll do double weapon dice and be revitalised by the momentum of the battle running my way, regaining 1d6 hit points".</p><p></p><p>And here's another perspective on the issue: no version of D&D has ever reduced the description of spell-users to "You are magical: you can declare any magical effect you can think of, and the GM will tell you what dice to roll to work out the consequences." And the fact that magic consists of rather tightly defined little packets of auto-effect has always been part of what makes spell-casters more attractive to power-players in AD&D.</p><p></p><p>(The RPG system I am familiar with that <em>does</em> handle spell-casting in roughly the way D&D doesn't is Marvel Heroic RP, although it has dice mechanics and a few other bells-and-whistles that take adjudication out of the realm of pure GM fiat. I'm sure there are others, too.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6582943, member: 42582"] Like some other posters upthread, I'm curious about what "anything" means here. I couldn't declare, as an action, "I run the orc through". All that really meant was that I got to make an attack roll: the resolution was no different from if I declared "I swing at the orc" or "I attack the orc". At most tables I played at, a 1st level fighter also couldn't declare "I attack the nearest orc, sidestep 10', and attack the other orc". Even when mutiple attacks came into play (via specialisation, or at 7th level) the possibility of moving between attacks was never very clear. The 1st level fighter in my 4e game had a power that let him do exactly what I've just described. (Passing Attack.) His daily power (Comeback Strike) let him do 2W damage and spend a healing surge. In AD&D I never encountered a GM who let the player of the fighter declare "I am going to make a might attack and, if I hit, I'll do double weapon dice and be revitalised by the momentum of the battle running my way, regaining 1d6 hit points". And here's another perspective on the issue: no version of D&D has ever reduced the description of spell-users to "You are magical: you can declare any magical effect you can think of, and the GM will tell you what dice to roll to work out the consequences." And the fact that magic consists of rather tightly defined little packets of auto-effect has always been part of what makes spell-casters more attractive to power-players in AD&D. (The RPG system I am familiar with that [I]does[/I] handle spell-casting in roughly the way D&D doesn't is Marvel Heroic RP, although it has dice mechanics and a few other bells-and-whistles that take adjudication out of the realm of pure GM fiat. I'm sure there are others, too.) [/QUOTE]
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