Anzyr wrote:
Because I can play a "Charming Thief with equally quick wit and blade who grew up tough on the streets, but hides a heart of a gold" regardless of whether my class is Alchemist, Bard, Investigator, Oracle, Ranger, Slayer, or Sorcerer. A class is not a character description, it's only your abilities. My Charming Thief could easily be any one of those classes.
The problem I find "old school players" have is that they can't roleplay character, only a role. They don't come up with "Charming Thief with equally quick wit and blade who grew up tough on the streets, but hides a heart of a gold", they say "I want to play a Rogue.", thus the only class that can fill this role the Rogue. That is not good roleplaying.
As to the Paladin's Code, that's because the Paladin's Code is frankly to open to interpretation. My Paladins would be well in the right to cut down the Baron in the dead of the night, or lead a rebellion, because it made...
I personally find that story matters over mechanics. If I am going to play a paladin, I am doing it because I have a great idea of a character who has the wisdom and the desire to be a paladin, but lacks the charisma to be truly effective at it. The character will continue to strive to be the epitome of what it means to be a paladin, but will be flawed. He will stumble and there will be times when his paladin abilities will fail him, but he will continue on. To me that is a great paladin, not one who chose all the right archetypes, feats etc. that will ensure victory in combat. Combat is a side effect of role playing not why I role play. I have no problem with mechanic heavy games though I prefer lighter games.I like options for my games and characters, but when I start to think about how many attacks I get a round, number of bonuses to attacks, and damage per attack instead of how I interact with the world, then it is time for me to move on.
I have several friends that I used to play with back in 2nd Edition and a little bit of 3rd Edition. I recently got back in touch with them and was looking to play again. I had offered them 5th Edition to try. They said they were playing Pathfinder. I replied cool and they asked if I would like to join their game. We continued talking and he began telling me about his character. And as he talked, all I kept hearing him mention was how many attacks he made a round, how much damage he did each hit, and how high his armor class was. Never once did he mention what his character's story was. That told me all I needed to know. My old friends' game may be awesome for them, but it was not something that I would want to play in. To each their own.
I just think that sometimes the role playing gets lost in all the options and rules stating what my character can and cannot do. I get it, with organized play and society play at shops and such a rule is needed for about everything so all the player's understand. I just feel that sometimes all the rules do not enhance the story but hinder it by painting a GM into a corner.