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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Thoughts of a 3E/4E powergamer on starting to play 5E
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<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 6881813" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>In most editions effective offensive spellcaster players had to learn as much as possible about the monsters they were fighting. I've also seen players who didn't bother to do any study or keep track of monster traits in or out of character and it was very frustrating for some of the other players in that game when they repeatedly wasted spells on monsters that were resistant or immune to them or used high damage spells on low hit point monsters. (I realise this is a case of mismatch of player goals, there's nothing wrong with suboptimal play so long as it suits that particular table).</p><p></p><p>Now I've seen D&D games with very little roleplaying where the players are straight up rewarded for recognising monsters and their stats from having studied them, but this is a rarer style in P&P RPGs AFAIK nowadays. Most tables discourage metagaming to some extent, but given the huge rewards for study, and the immense suckiness of a spellcaster with a few spells who keeps wasting them, I find it's nigh on impossible to stop players from using such knowledge if they don't blurt it out and find reasonable pretexts for discovering such information within the game. It makes in character sense for adventurers to seek out information about their enemies and how to oppose them effectively.</p><p></p><p>From some statements on this topic it's difficult not to conclude that some referees prefer their PCs blinkered, ignorant and hapless. I realise it's easier to write adventures for players who know little, but that's a relatively short part of a long term player's career. Maybe some games dump players who commit the crime of knowing too much and recruit more clueless newbies it's easier to run games for. Obviously, there's a range of tastes here in regard to learning settings, and metagaming.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 6881813, member: 2656"] In most editions effective offensive spellcaster players had to learn as much as possible about the monsters they were fighting. I've also seen players who didn't bother to do any study or keep track of monster traits in or out of character and it was very frustrating for some of the other players in that game when they repeatedly wasted spells on monsters that were resistant or immune to them or used high damage spells on low hit point monsters. (I realise this is a case of mismatch of player goals, there's nothing wrong with suboptimal play so long as it suits that particular table). Now I've seen D&D games with very little roleplaying where the players are straight up rewarded for recognising monsters and their stats from having studied them, but this is a rarer style in P&P RPGs AFAIK nowadays. Most tables discourage metagaming to some extent, but given the huge rewards for study, and the immense suckiness of a spellcaster with a few spells who keeps wasting them, I find it's nigh on impossible to stop players from using such knowledge if they don't blurt it out and find reasonable pretexts for discovering such information within the game. It makes in character sense for adventurers to seek out information about their enemies and how to oppose them effectively. From some statements on this topic it's difficult not to conclude that some referees prefer their PCs blinkered, ignorant and hapless. I realise it's easier to write adventures for players who know little, but that's a relatively short part of a long term player's career. Maybe some games dump players who commit the crime of knowing too much and recruit more clueless newbies it's easier to run games for. Obviously, there's a range of tastes here in regard to learning settings, and metagaming. [/QUOTE]
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