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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What abilities are abusable if reusable?
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<blockquote data-quote="jmucchiello" data-source="post: 2910906" data-attributes="member: 813"><p>I think there's a difference between abilities that are abusive and abilities that result in differing campaign defaults. Being able to fly at will is not abusive, it merely means that you cannot present situations to the players assuming they are ground-bound and expect to challenge them. I don't find any movement powers to be abusive, they result in different stories. Likewise, divination is almost meaningless in a kick butt campaign and abusive in a campaign geared toward mysteries. </p><p></p><p>Ultimately, you cannot balance one ability against another if those abilities do not share a domain space: combat abilities vs movement abilities vs charm/beguiling etc. Should transforming rock to mud be worth more or less then a DC 16-18 Will save to charm any monster? The answer is dependent on what you want your game to feel like. Canon D&D says Charm Monster is a lesser spell than Transform Rock to Mud. Is rock to mud really more powerful? Who's to say?</p><p>Again, not if the campaign world is aware of how cheap such effects are. Magic items that prevent Enchantments would be extremely common in a world where every apprentice can cast charm person. Heck, high level sorcerers can already cast charm person 20+ times a day, do they dominate (pun not intended) your campaigns?</p><p></p><p>I see the potential for a lot of sidebars in this book. <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=":)" /></p><p>At the risk of derailing, if it really bothers you, you can say that a particular region, desert say, has a -10 circumstance modifier to all Survival rolls. Incorporate Knowledge (nature) as a aid another roll.</p><p></p><p>Your example somewhat illustrates what I'm saying. For some people your mode of playing out wilderness survival is tedious and wrong-headed. For them, the game is about heroic exploits, not tracking small game in a desert. For you, the story must play out at the table and part of that story is sneaking up on small lizards in a desert. Create Food and Water is a 3rd level spell so the default assumption of the game is that survival checks for food are meaningless after 5th level. This is probably why the DC is so low.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jmucchiello, post: 2910906, member: 813"] I think there's a difference between abilities that are abusive and abilities that result in differing campaign defaults. Being able to fly at will is not abusive, it merely means that you cannot present situations to the players assuming they are ground-bound and expect to challenge them. I don't find any movement powers to be abusive, they result in different stories. Likewise, divination is almost meaningless in a kick butt campaign and abusive in a campaign geared toward mysteries. Ultimately, you cannot balance one ability against another if those abilities do not share a domain space: combat abilities vs movement abilities vs charm/beguiling etc. Should transforming rock to mud be worth more or less then a DC 16-18 Will save to charm any monster? The answer is dependent on what you want your game to feel like. Canon D&D says Charm Monster is a lesser spell than Transform Rock to Mud. Is rock to mud really more powerful? Who's to say? Again, not if the campaign world is aware of how cheap such effects are. Magic items that prevent Enchantments would be extremely common in a world where every apprentice can cast charm person. Heck, high level sorcerers can already cast charm person 20+ times a day, do they dominate (pun not intended) your campaigns? I see the potential for a lot of sidebars in this book. :) At the risk of derailing, if it really bothers you, you can say that a particular region, desert say, has a -10 circumstance modifier to all Survival rolls. Incorporate Knowledge (nature) as a aid another roll. Your example somewhat illustrates what I'm saying. For some people your mode of playing out wilderness survival is tedious and wrong-headed. For them, the game is about heroic exploits, not tracking small game in a desert. For you, the story must play out at the table and part of that story is sneaking up on small lizards in a desert. Create Food and Water is a 3rd level spell so the default assumption of the game is that survival checks for food are meaningless after 5th level. This is probably why the DC is so low. [/QUOTE]
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What abilities are abusable if reusable?
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