NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 7139583" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Sorry, I read more into what you were saying than you meant, and then later down the thread someone did ask me to find it. I feel like that is karma talking. Where are the gods written out in 5e? Tiamat has an avatar, but no one else has been statted have they? And I’m sure plenty of beings had abilities involving XP in old editions. Undead used to have the ability to grant negative levels after all. However that worked in the game lore. But, the fact that the company felt the need to call it out speaks towards the community that was involved. Sure, they may have assumed with no evidence, but after a long enough time the community making the assumption there is little difference between official canon and assumed canon. Canon itself is a product of the community that consumes the material after all. I have options sure, but how many times can I use each excuse? If I have players who care about such things the fact that everyone else is conveniently busy when the plot arrives will begin to wear thin. I know as a player I started getting frustrated with the Guard of Waterdeep in the mercenary game I was playing in. Time and time again we would have an issue, something would be threatening someone or something mysterious would be going on or someone would be missing, and we’d hear “And the guards won’t do anything about it so I turned to you”.And sure, that was the story, we were mercs, and having the guards fixing all the problems would make us unnecessary, but seriously, why does this major city have the most useless and lazy guards ever?  Like, this New York essentially, and we never encountered the police doing anything about serious threats to the city. Cult in the sewers? Meh. Giants destroying farms? Meh. Major Demon summoned and ravishing the countryside? Meh. Rash of mysterious deaths? Meh.  We never even got the guard coming to us admitting they couldn’t handle the problem, it was always just that they didn’t care enough to get involved or send anyone to look into it. It let us be the heroes but it made my character who was a former army officer insane, because all I wanted to do was go and beat them into shape so they actually protected the city. This same type of storytelling tool is used all the time, and it isn’t a bad one, I get that. But, if used too much or improperly it starts stretching my believability and I am certain my limit for such things is average, some people can’t stand it even less than I can, and for them it just will not fly. You are the one who keeps insisting Raistlin is the exact same as Elminster. That competing against the PCs is therefore the exact same as helping them. Having Raistlin show up and fight the PCs enough times for him to overshadow them would be like playing one of those JRPGs where you have the fight you are scripted to lose, only instead of happening just once to show how powerful the villain was it happens at the end of every single dungeon. Very few people would be ridiculous enough to do that. However, it is much less ridiculous to have a powerful ally show up to help at the start of every dungeon. And, it takes a lot fewer times for that to happen at the table for people to get fed up with it. It is a matter of degree, a matter of nuance, I won’t deny that. Heck, it’s a matter of table preferences and player tolerances too. But if it was never an issue, no one would say it is an issue. If no one thought Driz’zt being a heroic drow and people playing Driz’zt clones was a problem, no one would say it is a problem. But, those high level NPCs are actually everywhere. I’m sure a list of all the high level NPCs officially in FR would be far higher than the list of superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a lot easier to juggle one or two individuals than it is ten or twenty. No one may be talking about “Ulder Ravengard, Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate and Marshal of the Flaming Fist” but that doesn’t mean he or she doesn’t cause issues for some parties because she needs to be at Trade Negotiations any time something needs to happen in Baldur’s Gate. And actually, even if she is, aren’t the Flaming Fist a pretty tough bunch? Why aren’t they helping clear the cemetery of the Undead scourge that is threatening the people? Or tracking down the vampire killings next month? Or dealing with the Werewolf reports that begin cropping up three months later? Or the Orc raids? Or the Zhent crime spree? How many threats can you craft plausible scenarios for? Most tables deal with dangerous threats every session, leading to multiple threats a week in some instances and we are supposed to believe the “tough and ready” guard force is absent or unable to deal with any of them? Oh, and lets not forget the Temples who also stand by and do nothing, despite the fact that a famous paladin makes his home there, or a former adventuring cleric. And the powerful sage wizard whose tower is in the center of the city. Or the well-known adventurers like Minsc who tend to make Baldur’s Gate a stopping point between their exploits. Or any of the former adventurers turned inn keepers or shop keeps or blacksmiths.A lot of people who are too busy to do anything about the problem, every single time. But I just need to think of all my options… every single time.</blockquote>

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