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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9325978" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>One of the weirdest things to me in D&D is this kind of cultural bias against having martial characters (especially fighters and rogues) be inherently magical, in the sense that they have clearly supernatural powers that are clearly not of the common world. Like, I can't give my Fighter <em>healing word</em>. And if I have a bard with <em>healing word</em>, they're definitely NOT a fighter. Which seems absolutely bonkers to me. In a world with dragons and giants and gods of war, we're saying that a Fighter can't be magical? That they slay a dragon purely with "extraordinary mundane" prowess? Do we need the Warlord to shout your HP back, or is it OK to have a martial warrior who can shout and magically heal your wounds in this fantasy world where magic can heal wounds? </p><p></p><p>I also think that if you drop the expectation that a Fighter can't have something magical, you end up helping with some of the "martial problem," as now you can have per-day or per-short-rest effects that follow the rules of magic rather than the rules of what we expect "training" to do. Most issues with martial dailies or damage-on-a-miss disappears once you stop trying to justify it as "an exceptional feat of martial skill" and just embrace the idea that "it's magic, kids." </p><p></p><p>I think monster abilities are probably a rich mine, but I'd hesitate to just poach from statblocks wholesale. An effect that gives you a STR of 24 might be "giant strength," you might have a fear effect like "dragon's fear," but my main point of comparison would be spells, since those are intended for PC use, and not monster abilities.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 9325978, member: 2067"] One of the weirdest things to me in D&D is this kind of cultural bias against having martial characters (especially fighters and rogues) be inherently magical, in the sense that they have clearly supernatural powers that are clearly not of the common world. Like, I can't give my Fighter [I]healing word[/I]. And if I have a bard with [I]healing word[/I], they're definitely NOT a fighter. Which seems absolutely bonkers to me. In a world with dragons and giants and gods of war, we're saying that a Fighter can't be magical? That they slay a dragon purely with "extraordinary mundane" prowess? Do we need the Warlord to shout your HP back, or is it OK to have a martial warrior who can shout and magically heal your wounds in this fantasy world where magic can heal wounds? I also think that if you drop the expectation that a Fighter can't have something magical, you end up helping with some of the "martial problem," as now you can have per-day or per-short-rest effects that follow the rules of magic rather than the rules of what we expect "training" to do. Most issues with martial dailies or damage-on-a-miss disappears once you stop trying to justify it as "an exceptional feat of martial skill" and just embrace the idea that "it's magic, kids." I think monster abilities are probably a rich mine, but I'd hesitate to just poach from statblocks wholesale. An effect that gives you a STR of 24 might be "giant strength," you might have a fear effect like "dragon's fear," but my main point of comparison would be spells, since those are intended for PC use, and not monster abilities. [/QUOTE]
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