| Andruin |
So...don't you think we should be able to choose not to attempt to defeat friendly barriers? Sometimes we have very specific reasons for choosing not to attempt to acquire certain boons, which is allowed, and being forced to attempt to defeat these "friendly" barriers (the ones that add boons to your hand if defeated and that you can banish if undefeated) could seriously derail such a plan, for what I consider to be no good reason. If we can banish it if undefeated, and suffer no ill effects from such a result, why can't we choose not to attempt to defeat them at all? Why are we compelled to unlock a chest or decipher a mystic inscription?
How about this: you're in a magical land and someone put this barrier in your way to slow you down or weaken you. They've enchanted it so you HAVE to deal with it - you have no choice. For a chest, they filled it with what they thought was junk, but it might not be junk to you. And they applied a magical compulsion to force you to take whatever you find.
I use the same approach when dealing with all of the "questionable" stuff. For example, Harsk can shoot arrows pretty much anywhere he wants. Why? Because he has an innate ability (magical or not) that tells him when someone needs his help - he shoots and the arrow hits.
It's simple, thematic, easy to apply, and fits every situation. For me, the key is to let my imagination fill in the missing or inconsistent parts.