Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shendorion" data-source="post: 6751822" data-attributes="member: 6804078">How do you explain having a breakthrough in the middle of an adventure, and knowing how to do something new?  I could see it explained a few different ways.For instance, Pikel always fancied himself a druid.  He affected druidic ways, did druidy things, and one day, right in the middle of a crisis, they just . . . started working.  Who knows if he had it in him all along, or if the crisis brought it out in him, or if some nature spirit took notice of him, or if the gods saw fit to make the game unfolding on the surface of the world more interesting?  All we know is that he kept saying "shee la la," and one day his cudgel started glowing.People learn in different ways.  Some people only experience personal growth in a crisis.  You see it all over the place in popular media: the hero is pressed on all sides, things look grim, and they reach down a little deeper into the reserves and pull out something new.  This game is primarily about epic storytelling, so using time-honored story tropes doesn't strike me as untoward.Arcane magic as written isn't all about rote recitation; it's a little more like a combination of higher mathematics and poetry.  How many mathematicians have epiphanies while they're away from their desks, taking showers, falling off the toilet, observing something out in the world that triggers some sort of minor shift in thinking that reveals the solution?  Arcane magic can be like that too.A good player will keep an eye a level or two down the line, and start seeding the narrative with the background they need to pull this off.  A thief interested in dipping cleric might spend downtime arguing philosophy or theology with a divinely ordained companion.  The fighter who wants to grab an arcane casting feat can be taking lessons from the members of his party, or sneaking peeks at the spellbooks on his shift at the watch, or might even have bought one way back when, and snuck it out for independent study when nobody was watching.  Everybody's got dreams and hobbies, even mercenary hobos.It doesn't take much work to explain away the emergence of new abilities outside the usual sphere of ability; all it requires is a flexible DM and imaginative players.</blockquote>

Verification