Why the Encounter Powers hate? (Maneuvers = Encounter)

[Chris_Nightwing]

Here is my question, why do you accept daily powers as being okay for magical abilities as making sense? It is no less arbitrary of a thing than encounter powers.

If you are looking at things from a simulationist point of view, I for one can't make much sense of the daily spell limit traditionally used in D&D. You could say "it's magic, that's just how it works", but that is a very hollow argument. D&D magic is so undefined that you can't appeal to any specific function of how magic works in order to justify daily limits of spells. Furthermore, most magic systems from novels and other works I have encountered do not work well with Vancian magic.

In the end, daily limited spells and powers are just the result of arbitrary game design. There is no in-setting justification for them. On the other hand, I can at least understand and accept encounter powers as a narrative description of the flow of combat.

We obviously have different narratives in our minds. I find it very easy to believe the Vancian idea that spells are hard things to keep in your head, you can only cast so many in a day and you have to prepare them in the morning and rest to get more the next day - in fact I liked Terry Pratchett's take on this with his Wizards even better. It works even better for Clerics, as praying is a daily ritual in many religions.

But a single physical feat you can only do once a day? Sure, if it was a 3 hour tennis match, or a marathon, but I can't make it work for a 'deal more damage' power that's over in six seconds without it involving some magical fuss to stop you doing it again. Encounter powers I can only justify with stamina, though it still doesn't work that you can't do them more than once.

So for me, yes, magic is arbitrary, you can decide how it works however you like, be it at-will spells, prepared, encounter, daily, on the full moon, when you carry a big stick, whatever. But physical feats of combat I have reference points for, even if I stretch it to heroic movie-style moves, and so I find myself using real world considerations to make sense of them.