How should I handle a question without a clear answer?

Question

The specific instance is here: Should I adjust encounter challenge for PCs with damage immunities?

The situation is that I was looking ideally for a RAW answer or clear-cut advice for handling the case I presented. What happened is that there's several answers posted that have fragments of what I'd consider a solid answer, but most of which also contain a lot of what I'd consider irrelevant-to-bad advice at handling the narrative background of my question.

I don't feel right checking off any of the given answers as correct, but if there were one incorporating the good points of each without the "chaff" of any of them, I'd consider the question answered.

Would it be correct to write an answer myself that encompasses all of these "correct" bits, credit the original authors and mark that as a solution? That feels a little...plagiaristic to me, but it's probably the only way this question is going to have an official answer.

Answer 1

Would it be correct to write an answer myself that encompasses all of these "correct" bits, credit the original authors and mark that as a solution? That feels a little...plagiaristic to me, but it's probably the only way this question is going to have an official answer.

Yes, that's an appropriate thing to do! We even have a bounty reason we can put on questions to request this, though I don't see it use it very often around here, which says:

Canonical answer required

The question is widely applicable to a large audience. A detailed canonical answer is required to address all the concerns.

A “canonical” answer is one that is complete and includes all the important points in one place, rather than scattered across multiple places. Of course if you plan to write it yourself there's no need to actually offer a bounty — I only mention it because it's shows that such answers are officially encouraged.

When writing a canonical answer that is based directly on other answers, you're right, you can simply give credit. Since our CC BY-SA license explicitly permits copying if credit is given, plagiarism is not an issue at all. We want to encourage a best, complete answer to be submitted and rise to the top.

The simplest way is probably to write a note at the bottom saying “This canonical answer is based on portions of the answers by Alice, Bob, Charlene, and Danny.” with each name linked to the appropriate answer.