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<blockquote data-quote="Geron Raveneye" data-source="post: 3594511" data-attributes="member: 2268">Matter of opinion, I realize, but to me, 3E didn't so much encourage the DM to say &quot;yes&quot; but rather to not say &quot;no&quot; because &quot;it is in the rules, and the rules are balanced&quot;. My job as a DM is not to balance the whole game system, but only the game I have at hand, which can be a completely different beast. That means e.g. if Wartrolls don't exist on my world, there is no excuse or explanation why I should allow a character from that world who hasn't ever heard of such a creature to transform into it. Knowledge checks cover the stuff that exists on this world on that topic, so even Knowledge (Monsters) shouldn't be able to uncover non-existent species.That is the basic problem with all the Polymorph problems, apparently...the attitude that &quot;if the player found it in some monster manual, the DM HAS to allow it, which can lead to overpowered characters, so the designers would have to cross-check EVERY monster they create against potential game abuse&quot;. Which is prevalent because, apparently, the designers first did their best to untrain the DM to say &quot;no&quot; by himself, and train the players to expect the DM to stick to the written rules instead of the spirit they were written in. At least that is how this reasoning appears to me. YMMV and all that.&nbsp; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing&nbsp; &nbsp; :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Geron Raveneye, post: 3594511, member: 2268"] Matter of opinion, I realize, but to me, 3E didn't so much encourage the DM to say "yes" but rather to [b]not[/b] say "no" because "it is in the rules, and the rules are balanced". My job as a DM is not to balance the whole game system, but only the game I have at hand, which can be a completely different beast. That means e.g. if Wartrolls don't exist on my world, there is no excuse or explanation why I should allow a character from that world who hasn't ever heard of such a creature to transform into it. Knowledge checks cover the stuff that [i]exists[/i] on this world on that topic, so even [i]Knowledge (Monsters)[/i] shouldn't be able to uncover non-existent species. That is the basic problem with all the [i]Polymorph[/i] problems, apparently...the attitude that "if the player found it in some monster manual, the DM HAS to allow it, which can lead to overpowered characters, so the designers would have to cross-check EVERY monster they create against potential game abuse". Which is prevalent because, apparently, the designers first did their best to untrain the DM to say "no" by himself, and train the players to expect the DM to stick to the written rules instead of the spirit they were written in. At least that is how this reasoning appears to me. YMMV and all that. :lol: [/QUOTE]

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