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What is the worst piece of DM advice people give that you see commonly spread?
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9009533" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>I mean, that was sort of my point. It cannot be reconciled with anything even remotely like "physics." Protestations that "in an infinite universe..." etc. just, frankly, miss the point. If you're going to have "physics" <em>mean</em> anything, "magic" as it is presented in D&D cannot exist. Something like Avatar: the Last Airbender, where magic is really limited and focused and doesn't become "do literally whatever you feel like if you practice enough and get the right training," could conceivably work--energy still comes from places and goes to places (thermodynamics remains), conservation laws can account for the change, etc. D&D magic is simply, fundamentally incompatible with Earth physics--down to its literal mathematical foundations. Derivatives don't have defined meaning in D&D land, which nixes <em>literally all of science</em>. This isn't a "well if you just understood it <em>fully</em>" kind of problem; it's a contradiction with the definition itself, and no alternative definition could recover what physics does.</p><p></p><p>Hence, I hold to my claim. What is more important is having D&D magic follow its own rules consistently, even if those rules flagrantly violate realism or similarity to reality. Once a premise or concept has been accepted and integrated--become part of the new "ground" upon which things can be built--it no longer matters whether that thing is realistic or unrealistic.</p><p></p><p>A level 20 warrior can take a dozen times the "wounds" that would slay a warhorse and keep fighting. This is blatantly unrealistic if HP are meat, and if HP are <em>not</em> meat, that's already unrealism right there. There is nothing <em>physically</em> true or real to which we can claim similarity for this; instead, it is similarity to myth and legend, to great tales and important story beats. But, because those myths and legends can <em>feel</em> more true than the crass demands of the physical world, we are happy to set aside, or even break, the actual rules of the physical world and instead operate by acceptable <em>new</em> rules. Those rules must be "real" <em>within</em> the fictional world--they cannot be mere arbitrary conventions or abstraction for the sake of simplicity or drama--but they do not, in any way, need to be real <em>in our world</em>, which is what "realism" actually refers to.</p><p></p><p>Once you've established the groundedness of something, anything goes, so long as you don't contradict that groundedness. Hence why D&D magic can do whatever it needs to, and get hand-wavy "in an infinite universe..." kinds of explanations, but having a single thing--even a very small one--that <em>doesn't</em> establish its groundedness is a huge, huge problem for players that value this. It's why you get arguments of the form, "If even <em>one</em> player in the group has <X ability that isn't grounded>, <em>my</em> fun will be ruined." Even though the Wizard can play sillybuggers all day with the laws of reality, the Fighter being able to use a special attack only once per combat implies groundedness no longer holds, and that one single element, no matter how irrelevant to people <em>not</em> playing the Fighter, casts doubt upon the whole system--if <em>that</em> can be ungrounded, what about all the other stuff?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9009533, member: 6790260"] I mean, that was sort of my point. It cannot be reconciled with anything even remotely like "physics." Protestations that "in an infinite universe..." etc. just, frankly, miss the point. If you're going to have "physics" [I]mean[/I] anything, "magic" as it is presented in D&D cannot exist. Something like Avatar: the Last Airbender, where magic is really limited and focused and doesn't become "do literally whatever you feel like if you practice enough and get the right training," could conceivably work--energy still comes from places and goes to places (thermodynamics remains), conservation laws can account for the change, etc. D&D magic is simply, fundamentally incompatible with Earth physics--down to its literal mathematical foundations. Derivatives don't have defined meaning in D&D land, which nixes [I]literally all of science[/I]. This isn't a "well if you just understood it [I]fully[/I]" kind of problem; it's a contradiction with the definition itself, and no alternative definition could recover what physics does. Hence, I hold to my claim. What is more important is having D&D magic follow its own rules consistently, even if those rules flagrantly violate realism or similarity to reality. Once a premise or concept has been accepted and integrated--become part of the new "ground" upon which things can be built--it no longer matters whether that thing is realistic or unrealistic. A level 20 warrior can take a dozen times the "wounds" that would slay a warhorse and keep fighting. This is blatantly unrealistic if HP are meat, and if HP are [I]not[/I] meat, that's already unrealism right there. There is nothing [I]physically[/I] true or real to which we can claim similarity for this; instead, it is similarity to myth and legend, to great tales and important story beats. But, because those myths and legends can [I]feel[/I] more true than the crass demands of the physical world, we are happy to set aside, or even break, the actual rules of the physical world and instead operate by acceptable [I]new[/I] rules. Those rules must be "real" [I]within[/I] the fictional world--they cannot be mere arbitrary conventions or abstraction for the sake of simplicity or drama--but they do not, in any way, need to be real [I]in our world[/I], which is what "realism" actually refers to. Once you've established the groundedness of something, anything goes, so long as you don't contradict that groundedness. Hence why D&D magic can do whatever it needs to, and get hand-wavy "in an infinite universe..." kinds of explanations, but having a single thing--even a very small one--that [I]doesn't[/I] establish its groundedness is a huge, huge problem for players that value this. It's why you get arguments of the form, "If even [I]one[/I] player in the group has <X ability that isn't grounded>, [I]my[/I] fun will be ruined." Even though the Wizard can play sillybuggers all day with the laws of reality, the Fighter being able to use a special attack only once per combat implies groundedness no longer holds, and that one single element, no matter how irrelevant to people [I]not[/I] playing the Fighter, casts doubt upon the whole system--if [I]that[/I] can be ungrounded, what about all the other stuff? [/QUOTE]
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What is the worst piece of DM advice people give that you see commonly spread?
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