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We have some old 4e tags that should probably be cleaned up:

These should be replaced with the more general tag. This change is in a similar vein to the recent decision not to have tags for the 3.P schools of magic, and to instead use the tag as well as possibly more thematic tags such as mind control, creating undead, etc. as needed by the community.

So far the following tags on these questions have been replaced with :

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  • \$\begingroup\$ For large tag sets, we can use a mod-tool to rename them all at once, if it's decided to be done. (That avoids editing/bumping large numbers of Qs.) \$\endgroup\$ Apr 15, 2018 at 15:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie None of these are large sets; at most a dozen questions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 15, 2018 at 15:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ Cool. It's still an option for small sets (it's not burdensome to use), but then it's a trade off between just doing it and waiting for a mod. :) \$\endgroup\$ Apr 15, 2018 at 15:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie I'll probably knock them out in small bursts of 5-6 questions at a time, waiting for each burst to fall off the front page before doing another. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 15, 2018 at 15:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ The [powers] tag itself is kind of awkward: it’s very 4e-centric. And on its face, it seems like a superset of [spells]. But nonetheless it still seems like the right tag to use. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Apr 15, 2018 at 17:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan there's a few other games that have powers; D&D 4e uses the term because it's one of them (and is ~75% of its questions because of volume). \$\endgroup\$ Apr 15, 2018 at 17:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener Sure, but “power” isn’t the term used in a lot of games. E.g. Exalted and its charms, which are the same concept as 4e powers. Or 3.5e’s use of “power” to refer specifically to psionics. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Apr 15, 2018 at 17:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan I don't disagree with any of that, I'm just not sure why it occurs as 4e-centric or as awkward. In those games that have a concept of powers, [powers] is the topic; D&D 4e is one of those and so uses it, and D&D 4e hasn't defined the [powers] tag AFAIK to the detriment of any other games that share the tag. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 15, 2018 at 17:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie Are tags with no questions still deleted if they have a tag wiki entry? I just noticed the [encounter-powers] tag has one. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 16, 2018 at 20:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage They're not deleted, but I'm not 100% sure what that implies. It's probably not worth worrying about in this case though. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 16, 2018 at 20:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie I'll keep an eye on the tag and if it's still around in a couple days without any questions then we can revisit the matter. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 16, 2018 at 23:54

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I would request you don't burninate . Leave it as-is.

The other tags are "a power, but with this timing or categorisation". That's not all that functionally important. I don't personally object to burninating those.

But sustained powers are a whole bag of mechanics on their own requiring unique understanding because of what's involved in a power being sustained. That's a distinct topic materially worth tagging and enabling people to search.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure I agree, but it's a reasonable enough position that I'm willing to leave the tag alone. We might want to do a search for questions that should have it but don't; I suspect we've gotten more than 6 questions about sustaining powers. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 16, 2018 at 23:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you. I agree with that searching. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 16, 2018 at 23:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ It occurs to me that we also might want to rename or synonymize the tag to allow it to be used more broadly; sustaining powers is thematically equivalent to concentration in other editions of D&D, and I'm sure if we go looking we can find similar mechanics in other games (keeping an effect active by devoting "effort" to it). On the other hand I could see that leading to confusion, so maybe not. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 16, 2018 at 23:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage I'd rather let D&D 4e tag them as sustained powers, D&D 5e tag it as concentration, and so on for other games rather than enforce a universal tag based on surface similarities. Merging them will probably be unhelpful, at the very least for being able to recognise the tags attached to a post for what they mean, and will cause trouble if we enforce "concentration is the tag for this concept" but that one game has both that concept (but not called concentration) and an entirely different mechanic called concentration. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 17, 2018 at 0:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ I was just brainstorming in text form, so I'm not wedded to the idea. That seems like a pretty good counterargument. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 17, 2018 at 0:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage I read it that way; no problem. I appreciate the opportunity to try to articulate something that had been sitting on my mind. :) \$\endgroup\$ Apr 17, 2018 at 0:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you drop [status-completed] on this question, since all the tags that we agreed to burninate are now deader than Hitler (who is in cryo-storage in Brazil)? \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Apr 23, 2018 at 3:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sure thing, added :D \$\endgroup\$ Apr 23, 2018 at 7:22

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