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="Hussar" data-source="post: 6015578" data-attributes="member: 22779">I'll admit, I'm rather torn.  On one hand, I love just handing things off to the players.  You want that +3 Widget, you have the cash?  Go for it.  I'll chuck things in the adventure that I think you might like, sometimes you do, sometimes you sell it and get something you like better.  Great.  It also stops the whole "every fighter uses a sword because that's all we ever find" syndrome.  I like that fighters (or other characters) use a variety of implements and don't have to worry about me, the DM, throwing them a bone when they want that +2 Voulge.  OTOH, it is utterly game changing when the players decide to actually use the rules.  It really is.  Clerics no longer have to use any slots in healing outside of combat.  Sure, you might get the odd in-combat healing, but, by and large, clerics no longer heal which radically changes how clerics play.  The Batman-Wizard with a utility belt o' goodies makes a very large impact on the game as well.For those who haven't seen it, it's really eye-opening when it does happen.  We didn't have it happen until late in 3e and then WOW, it just zoomed off the chart.And IMO, it's not even that bad of a thing really.  But, it is really, really game changing when your 3e group, which previously would do 1-3 encounters in a row, starts doing entire adventures without slowing down.Additionally, I would never claim what is "normal" for home games.  Maybe it was crafting, maybe it wasn't.  But, I do know that the RPGA, which formed a large basis for the thinking behind 4e, used crafting extensively, to the point where CLW wands were pretty much assumed for every character and things like that.</blockquote>

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