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="Hussar" data-source="post: 5471083" data-attributes="member: 22779">Reread your 3.5 PHB.  You may not open a lock without a tool.  -2 is for an improvised tool, not no tool at all.  You must use a tool to use the open lock skill in 3.5.Ahh, so, I can play a diplomatic fighter, so long as I'm willing to wait four or five levels and burn resources into it.  The fact that I can't out of the gate can be safely ignored.Yup, and look at those published settings.  Several hundred PAGES of text on how to change these assumptions.4e, I can change from standard wealth to low magic in one sentence.  In 3e, it requires me to rejigger nearly every aspect of the game.  "Not all that complicated" is a bit of an understatement.Non-sequitor.  In all games, the mechanics place limits on the narrative.  Ahh, so we're basing opinions entirely on ad copy from two or three years ago and not basing opinions on anything to actually do with the games.  Ok.  To me, you're making mountains out of molehills.  To me, D&D has ALWAYS been mechanics first.  The only real change is where the mechanics are used, rather than any substansive change.  Instead of the mechanics being located almost entirely in the setting and campaign design phase, they've now been moved into actual play as well.  But, is that really a major change.  Instead of making all the changes up front and then playing, is it a major shift to allow changes to be made mid-stream?Maybe that's the issue that I'm not seeing.  To me, I've never seen D&D played this way - you create a game world and that game world is now fixed in stone until that campaign ends.  D&D worlds have very often actually been reactive.  A 1st level module has 10 foot pit traps, a 10th level module has 50 foot pit traps with monsters at the bottom.  Why?  Because it's a 10th level adventure and not a 1st level one.  The mechanics define the game world.  For the same reason that 1st level characters fight goblins and 10th level characters fight giants.  Why?  Because the mechanics dictate that.That's what's D&D has always been.  Module series get harder the higher level you are.  The Dungeon Level I random encounter table doesn't have dragons, but the Dungeon Level X (as in 10) random encounter table does.Why?  Because the mechanics of D&D shape the narrative of the campaign.</blockquote>

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