I'm not fighting. I simply addressed a flippant and dismissive comment made by a fellow poster.
Pretty sure you're fighting. Over nothing, for that matter.
What you call "fluff" is a very important part of this discussion.
You say that, but offer absolutely no explanation as to why.
The contention was that there are only 15 or so possible characters to play based on the core rules, and therefore the core rules are (implicitly) insufficient to create a genuine variety of game-play experiences. I argue, however, that playing different personalities with different character histories is <i>the</i> way that players and DMs have created their own variety in this game, in its various incarnations, for going on 40 years now. There was very little mechanical difference between one 2nd Ed fighter and another, aside from what weapons they owned, and yet we managed to play genuinely different, varied characters for decades before feats and skills and advanced classes came along.
Wow, this makes absolutely no difference within the context of the discussion. It seems like it's just going in one ear and out the other, but I'll explain why again. Quite simply, you can play 10,000+ vastly different character concepts and have them feel vastly different and play vastly different in the course of a roleplaying game. This has absolutely no relevance to a discussion about mechanical build versatility, let alone balance. It is, quite simply, wholly irrelevant to the subject of discussion, and thus commits the fallacy of irrelevance.
I say the following with great respect for all the posters and in the spirit of rigorous debate: to dismiss role-playing as mere "fluff" is to seriously misunderstand the basic concept of a <b>role</b>-playing game.
You're talking to a guy whose group talks like this when they just plain go to sleep in a real time chat game (not pbp):
The energy, burning and roiling inside, festered like oil on paper in the heat of a candle. While Azalea slept, the shadow of the bed worked itself like a hole upon reality, reaching tendrils of true night into the otherwise silent evening. A screaming silence enveloped the floorboards and window, causing the flickering light of the lamp to become an island of reality, fervently grasping at the colors there like a flood of cockroaches emptying a dank castle
The gateway to that nether realm existed not within the room, however, but in its occupant, and it was no gaping abyss, no, that solid black river was a conduit, gifting, reaching, as Azalea's subconscious thoughts ripped non-forces from the stream like the clattering hands of some bony fiend dipping into horrid rivers of mewling truths.
((Spell slots recovered!))
...Yeah, I don't think I need a lecture on roleplaying any more than I need someone to tell me I can't roleplay because I can build a competent character. Seriously. Give us a freakin' break already.
And honestly, accusing us of grievously misunderstanding the nature of a roleplaying game for no reason is nothing near respectful.
Moreover, no one is dismissing the importance of roleplaying to the game. They are dismissing the relevance of roleplaying aspects to this specific venue of discussion, where it is in fact largely irrelevant.
