Eh, I see what you're saying.Lago PARANOIA wrote:@ACOS
In the context of choice, empowerment and entitlement are the same thing. Like, literally the same thing. Any argument that tries to draw a distinction is doomed to fail on first principles.
If you said something like 'between races, classes, feats, spells, traits, etc. players have too much empowerment and I prefer to draw a line in the sand at magical items', your argument would make a lot more sense. I'd still think that, at least in the context of D&D as she is played, would be mistaken but it'd at least be coherent.
Let me see if I can pretty that up a little:
By "empowerment", I was referring to players' ability to make informed, meaningful choices for and about their characters, contrasted with impromptu DM hand-waive fuckery.
"Entitlement" was meant in the sense of a petulant child waving their arms as they insist "I want it all, and I want it now". I used it as short-hand for "excessive self-entitlement", which leads to temper-tantrums.
The idea being that if a thing is in the PHB, the assumption is that it is freely open to player use. Conversely, if it's in the DMG, players are less likely to throw a tantrum if the DM disallows it or is otherwise selective in its availability.