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<blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 6241831" data-attributes="member: 4936"><p>A "character build" is just the sum total of choices a player makes to create the mechanical aspects of the character. In 1st Edition, a 'build' was your attributes, your class, and your equipment. If you were a spellcaster it also included which spells you had prepared.</p><p></p><p>Later editions added more player choices, in the form of proficiencies, kits, feats, skills, and so on...but the exercise of those options is not automatically rules-lawyering any more than a fighter choosing his rolled '18' to go in Strength.</p><p></p><p>Granted, the additional layers of choice add levels of complexity, and with that complexity arose the specter of unintentional outcomes...often in the form of synergies between choices that weren't planned on by designers, and led to dramatically overpowerful results. On the other end, some choices that were thematically appropriate were so anti-mechanical that players making those choices would be significantly handicapped, compared to the assumptions of the core rules regarding their abilities to overcome challenges.</p><p></p><p>The continuum isn't unique to D&D. More player choice typically does equal more need for increasingly elaborate rules to ensure those choices don't lead to 'rules sanctioned' yet woefully unbalanced results. Or, conversely, a system like FATE where near-total choice is embraced, and the results all stem from player-GM dialogue rather than a fixed rules system...and so balance is emergent from that dialogue rather than from rules.</p><p></p><p>The issue of rules-lawyering is fundamentally an issue between indivduals...player and GM...and their tolerances for the precarious 'frenemy' relationship between the mechanical and narrative aspects of building a character.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shayuri, post: 6241831, member: 4936"] A "character build" is just the sum total of choices a player makes to create the mechanical aspects of the character. In 1st Edition, a 'build' was your attributes, your class, and your equipment. If you were a spellcaster it also included which spells you had prepared. Later editions added more player choices, in the form of proficiencies, kits, feats, skills, and so on...but the exercise of those options is not automatically rules-lawyering any more than a fighter choosing his rolled '18' to go in Strength. Granted, the additional layers of choice add levels of complexity, and with that complexity arose the specter of unintentional outcomes...often in the form of synergies between choices that weren't planned on by designers, and led to dramatically overpowerful results. On the other end, some choices that were thematically appropriate were so anti-mechanical that players making those choices would be significantly handicapped, compared to the assumptions of the core rules regarding their abilities to overcome challenges. The continuum isn't unique to D&D. More player choice typically does equal more need for increasingly elaborate rules to ensure those choices don't lead to 'rules sanctioned' yet woefully unbalanced results. Or, conversely, a system like FATE where near-total choice is embraced, and the results all stem from player-GM dialogue rather than a fixed rules system...and so balance is emergent from that dialogue rather than from rules. The issue of rules-lawyering is fundamentally an issue between indivduals...player and GM...and their tolerances for the precarious 'frenemy' relationship between the mechanical and narrative aspects of building a character. [/QUOTE]
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