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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8187873" data-attributes="member: 42582">Also what [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] said: a &quot;trap&quot; option is one that is worse than the alternatives but that doesn't reveal itself as such.If I'm building a classic D&amp;D wizard, and have to choose between a +1 dagger and a +1 sword (eg maybe this is part of a suite of build options presented as part of preparing a party for a tournament run), the sword is not a trap option. Because it's obvious to me that my wizard can't use the sword, and so even though on its face it is better than the dagger, the dagger is obviously better for me as a wizard player.[USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER]'s complaint is that the game (i) presented Intimidation as a viable strategy for his fighter/rogue, when it fact it wasn't, and (ii) presented Skill Focus as a useful way to pursue this strategy, when in fact it wasn't. Those build resources could have been, and from the point of view of rational character building ought to have been, spent on some other feat, probably in pursuit of some other strategy.The analogue in the context of my preceding paragraph would be a tournament context that presented the +1 sword as a viable, even attractive, pick for the wizard only for it to be revealed through the rigours of play that a wizard is forbidden from using a sword. And it's that revelation of the hidden suckitude which is what leads to it being labelled a &quot;trap option&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8187873, member: 42582"] Also what [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] said: a "trap" option is one that is [I]worse than the alternatives but that doesn't reveal itself as such[/I]. If I'm building a classic D&D wizard, and have to choose between a +1 dagger and a +1 sword (eg maybe this is part of a suite of build options presented as part of preparing a party for a tournament run), the sword is not a trap option. Because it's obvious to me that my wizard can't use the sword, and so even though on its face it is better than the dagger, the dagger is obviously better for me [I]as a wizard player[/I]. [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER]'s complaint is that the game (i) presented Intimidation as a viable strategy for his fighter/rogue, when it fact it wasn't, [I]and[/I] (ii) presented Skill Focus as a useful way to pursue this strategy, when in fact it wasn't. Those build resources could have been, and from the point of view of rational character building ought to have been, spent on some other feat, probably in pursuit of some other strategy. The analogue in the context of my preceding paragraph would be a tournament context that presented the +1 sword as a viable, even attractive, pick for the wizard [I]only for it to be revealed through the rigours of play that a wizard is forbidden from using a sword[/I]. And it's that revelation of the hidden suckitude which is what leads to it being labelled a "trap option". [/QUOTE]

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