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<blockquote data-quote="jmartkdr2" data-source="post: 8585394" data-attributes="member: 7017304">I think it's a tough nut to crack for a game like DnD because we want it to be optional.Some players are going to want to encounter a puzzle with most monsters where they need to figure out what weapon to use before they attack to do so with maximum effectiveness. Other players won't want to deal with that - or will simply always want to use their mother's sword and be effective that way. And these two types want to play together at the same table, and be about equally effective. So you really can't use the carrot or the weapon-switcher will outperform. And the stick just sometimes punishes the weapon-switcher if the don't solve the puzzle. There's technically a balance point, but it's when the difference between the right weapon and another weapon is negligible. Also it's a really tough puzzle to crack in a non-visual medium because you have a much harder time burying clues in the text, especially since the text will be re-written by the dm on the fly so it will often be left unsaid - unless the players metagame of course, which is how most games deal with these sorts of puzzles.(What I mean is: either there are&nbsp; certain keywords that indicate what weapon to use - ie &quot;bony&quot; means use bludgeoning - in which case players will learn the keywords early and then the puzzle is gone, or there's no consistent way to know, in which case the 'puzzle' becomes 'guess randomly until you stumble upon the answer. And that assumes the players don't know any of the monsters, even if they dm themselves. Basically imagine if every monster was a troll.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jmartkdr2, post: 8585394, member: 7017304"] I think it's a tough nut to crack for a game like DnD because we want it to be optional. Some players are going to want to encounter a puzzle with most monsters where they need to figure out what weapon to use before they attack to do so with maximum effectiveness. Other players won't want to deal with that - or will simply always want to use their mother's sword and be effective that way. And these two types want to play together at the same table, and be about equally effective. So you really can't use the carrot or the weapon-switcher will outperform. And the stick just sometimes punishes the weapon-switcher if the don't solve the puzzle. There's technically a balance point, but it's when the difference between the right weapon and another weapon is negligible. Also it's a really tough puzzle to crack in a non-visual medium because you have a much harder time burying clues in the text, especially since the text will be re-written by the dm on the fly so it will often be left unsaid - unless the players metagame of course, which is how most games deal with these sorts of puzzles. (What I mean is: either there are certain keywords that indicate what weapon to use - ie "bony" means use bludgeoning - in which case players will learn the keywords early and then the puzzle is gone, or there's no consistent way to know, in which case the 'puzzle' becomes 'guess randomly until you stumble upon the answer. And that assumes the players don't know any of the monsters, even if they dm themselves. Basically imagine if every monster was a troll.) [/QUOTE]

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