As we’ve previously established, Sorcerer loves his fireballs. There are a million and one uses for a big ball of burny-hurty, and it’s all manner of fun coming up with them. The principle applies to every spell in the book: from prestidigitation to grease to wish, figuring out new and exciting uses for your abilities is just good gaming. There comes a time, however, when “creativity” gives way to abuse.

Here’s what I see happening in today’s comic. A player is faced with some sort of physical obstacle. Maybe it’s a mountain. Maybe it’s a big pit. Whatever. The point is that they’ve got to find a way across. The don’t have fly. They don’t have spider climb. All they’ve got to work with is a crappy Climb bonus and a backpack full of rope. Staring down the barrel of 20d6 falling damage, there’s plenty of incentive for coming up with creative solutions.

“I’ve got it, guys! You know how I play Soldier in TF2? Well I’ve got a plan….”

What follows is a poorly-conceived idea involving flame-retardant underpants and rocket propulsion. And whether this plan results in epic failure (see the Ming Dynasty astronaut) or epic success (see Midoriya’s landmines) has everything to do with your GM’s discretion. I’ll be up front with my opinion on this one. At my table, saying “I cast fireball at my feat and jump” is a recipe for 8d6 damage to the dome. The way I see it, some plans fall into the you-should-have-known-better category.

What do you guys think though? Encouraging player creativity is a good thing, but does that remain true even when the plan is ill-advised? Should GMs go out of their way to “let it work?” Or is it incumbent on creative players to accept negative rulings with good grace? Let’s hear how you prefer to run “rocket jump plans” down in the comments!

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