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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 5818974" data-attributes="member: 6668292">I sincerely hope that they do opt for the "wait" option. Then again, I also hope they include advice on more dramatist scene-framing.That is, I prefer to let scenes unfold organically, and will have NPCs, settings, and so on interact with the PCs in the most "impartial" way I can. Some NPCs will attempt to engage the entire party, some will only talk to the smooth talkers, and others will actively find the rhetorically weaker members and engage them.It depends on "what makes sense" to the setting, not the PCs. It's more "organic" in that sense than a more hands-on, dramatist "scene framing" approach that seeks to include and engage all members of the party. That will work for some groups, and thus advice for it should be included. As someone who prefers organic scenes over framing scenes, I'd like the game to accommodate that as well.The issue arises in the form of character choice and class design. As a player, I think that if I choose to have no social grace (including intimidation and the like), it says something. It says that my interest in social situations is diminished with this character, or that I want to engage them and fail. Either way, aiming for poor social skills all-around says something, and I think that the system should be free enough to allow that.To that end, mandating some form of competency means that certain wants of players are excluded. I can't play a character who doesn't understand social situations, and consistently performs poorly in them. I may still want to engage them, or I may want to skip the ball and wait outside the city or in my inn room. Either way, if I choose to skip social skills, it's for a reason, and baking some basic competency into the game precludes me from exploring that aspect of a character.I think that certain classes should be set up to shine in certain areas (Bards socially, or Fighters in combat), as makes sense for the archetype. However, I do like Firelance's ideas on expanding in one of the three areas. Maybe you started out 2/1/1 (combat/exploration/social) as a Fighter, but as you level, you place more resources into social, going up to 2/1/2, then later on 2/1/3, 2/1/4, etc. I'll always start with a 2 in combat, but that's because of the archetype I chose.I'd like the freedom to choose incompetency if it makes sense to the concept. Despite your seeming opinion that D&D may not be the best place to engage that sort of character, I think it's a very viable place to do so, and a fun, interesting, and informative place to do so.While I respect your opinion, I'd much rather see players be able to create and explore conceptual areas that interest them than sacrifice that to some form a balance in all three. If I want a 4/1/1 and you want a 2/2/2, that's fine to me. Maybe hyper-specialization is harder to do, and I only get 5/1/1 (7 total) while you get 3/3/3 (9 total). That'd be fine with me, too.What I want is a game that allows me to explore concepts that intrigue me conceptually, including incompetence. Weakness without a strength making up for it. In the Spiderman movie, Peter Parker isn't a particularly smooth talker, nor is he particularly intimidating. He also seems more crafty than tricky. He most certainly is the main character, and main protagonist, and they definitely use his social weakness to explore aspects of his character.That's what I want. I want both strengths and weaknesses to tell me something about my character, including weaknesses on an entire area of character play. This includes combat, exploration, or social interaction. The game includes all three, and I might look forward to that aspect, even with a purposeful, glaring weakness to it. I'd like the option to have that weakness. As always, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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