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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5393131" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think I'm a target of this post, but I'll reply anyway!The example of the house rule about 1s strikes me as a fairly common example of how D&D is played. It assumes that the GM has the power to set or vary the rules. Nothing in the 4e rulebooks supports it. It's an approach to play that I hope will die out over time, assuming that 4e (and other RPGs) have some lifespan beyond the current batch of aging D&D players who carry this legacy of earlier editions with them.As to your diagnosis of contradiction, I agree. I avoid the contradiction by denying that the GM has any power, under the rules, to veto PC build choices. The legacy of earlier editions means that, in practice, the GM probably has a disproportionate voice at many tables when it comes to negotiating houserules/table variations from the rules as written (which includes PC build rules) but again my hope is that this will die out over time.For a sensible discussion of how give-and-take can work beteen players and GM in setting the parameters of PC build, see (for example) the Burning Wheels rulebooks. These in fact go further, extending the same sort of give-and-take to monster building. In 4e, monster building is reservedby the rules to the GM , but a set of fairly tight parameters is established in order to ensure that the GM's decisions aren't arbitrary.EDIT FOR CROSSPOSTING: Hussar, I entirely feel the force of your follow-up post. But as I said above in this post, I really think this is a legacy thing. Someone who came to D&D with the 4e books and no legacy wouldn't get the sense at all that the GM is free to exclue elves, or dragonborn or whatever. The "It's your world" section of Essentials is about geography and monsters, but not PC build. The Dark Sun rulebooks have a sidebar expressly discussing how to handle the issue of nonstandard races, making it pretty clear that it's a player/GM negotiation issue - and this is even after everyone's agreed to play a Dark Sun game.</blockquote>

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