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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 9067167" data-attributes="member: 6777737">Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially in 3e.Spells are so good, so to keep it balanced they make everything into spells to keep some semblance of order and then give out more spells. That increases reliance on spells, and makes spells more valuable as a resource, which means other mechanics can't complete with spells.That's why the only remotely similar thing -- feats -- got so much of the rest of the design space. Every optional rule that couldn't fit into a spell was automatically slotted as a feat. That meant every optional rule that didn't use feats almost felt like a cheat. It also meant that nothing could be more powerful than an individual feat, so you'd have to make feat chains.And once we get to 4e, everything becomes a power or a feat explicitly. And every class gets the same number of powers and feats. Leaning into the design as heavily as possible.Like the other option would be to create a mechanic that's just like spells only you can't get them when you have spells. Except they have that mechanic already. It's called a different spell list.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 9067167, member: 6777737"] Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially in 3e. Spells are so good, so to keep it balanced they make everything into spells to keep some semblance of order and then give out more spells. That increases reliance on spells, and makes spells more valuable as a resource, which means other mechanics can't complete with spells. That's why the only remotely similar thing -- feats -- got so much of the rest of the design space. Every optional rule that couldn't fit into a spell was automatically slotted as a feat. That meant every optional rule that didn't use feats almost felt like a cheat. It also meant that nothing could be more powerful than an individual feat, so you'd have to make feat chains. And once we get to 4e, everything becomes a power or a feat [I]explicitly[/I]. And every class gets the same number of powers and feats. Leaning into the design as heavily as possible. Like the other option would be to create a mechanic that's just like spells only you can't get them when you have spells. Except they have that mechanic already. It's called a different spell list. [/QUOTE]

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