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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PHATsakk43" data-source="post: 9504695" data-attributes="member: 7041071">I think it still ultimately is a resource management game. It’s just that the resources are less arrows, rations, and lantern oil, and more spells and “once per long rest” actions. This sort of gets to a larger issue with some of the fundamentals of the game mechanics. Really since 3E we’ve seen a dramatic shift from the things that led to resource management being external to intrinsic to the players characters. When that happens, it takes a bit of the gameplay away from the table and puts it into the rules—and often outside of the DM’s control. It’s hard to create a tone of play when the player’s acquire relatively strong powers at regular intervals all of which is foreseen by the players well in advance. Older editions really didn’t provide a lot intrinsically to the PC as he or she leveled, most of the “power” in the game was from items and especially magic items. The players really don’t necessarily know how their character will work in two or three levels, as the magic items they acquire ultimately drive the character strategically and tactically far more than the base abilities do. I think that there is a certain amount of benefit in this style of game mechanic, but that something is also lost in it. It definitely reduces the risk of the falling into the Monte Haul side of the balanced play bell curve, as the DM can basically be super stingy with magic and not really affect the game. That healing has been glommed into this same sort of “defined power at level X” gameplay highlights some of what I was trying to explain. By building it into the game, it becomes effectively impossible to run a game where it isn’t taken into account. At the same time, the same thing that makes it possible is also what usually is powering all the super powers that characters gain.</blockquote>

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