Ok, so what if you envision your character as a consummate diplomat, secretive yet suave… and all you have on your character sheet are stats like “stabbing people” and “being really strong, in order to stab people better” ? Would you say that such a character sheet “does not support the vision” of the player ?
Obviously I would say exactly that.
Said by me:
game-mechanical challenges — whether these be combat, social interaction, assorted noncombat challenges (“we need to cross this chasm”; “we need to infiltrate this castle”; “we need to figure out whodunit”), or anything else that is handled by game mechanics in any way
Also said by me:
[Game-mechanical challenges] is not necessarily combat. It could also involve various non-combat skills, among other things.
So, I’m not really sure what you’re objecting to. Are you under the impression that I was advocating just being good at combat, and being bad at everything else? Regardless, even, of how much of the game consists of combat? I’m not sure what I said that gave you that impression.
Some minor notes, don’t take these as anything but tangents:
Note that the player’s diplomatic skills would be absolutely useless in combat
You’d be surprised… there are some builds out there that do crazy things with “non-combat” skills.
depending on the plot, it may be highly unlikely that diplomacy will play any significant role during the course of the game. In fact, in D&D specifically, combat is overwhelmingly more likely to occur than negotiations.
Depends on the players and the DM. For example, just recently, in my aforementioned campaign, I was all set to run a combat encounter, but one of the PCs instead negotiated his way out of it. It happens.
Obviously I would say exactly that.
Said by me:
Also said by me:
So, I’m not really sure what you’re objecting to. Are you under the impression that I was advocating just being good at combat, and being bad at everything else? Regardless, even, of how much of the game consists of combat? I’m not sure what I said that gave you that impression.
Some minor notes, don’t take these as anything but tangents:
You’d be surprised… there are some builds out there that do crazy things with “non-combat” skills.
Depends on the players and the DM. For example, just recently, in my aforementioned campaign, I was all set to run a combat encounter, but one of the PCs instead negotiated his way out of it. It happens.