DM: Oh! I get it! You're using your Cloak of Invisibility!
Rarity: One should always dress for success!
<roll>
Rarity: Is 17 enough to sneak past the brute?
DM: Yes. Tiamat goes deeper in the cave, searching for you.
Rarity: Excellent! Now how do we make sure she doesn't come back?
Fluttershy: Um...I think I have an idea?
Fluttershy: Bobby is strong, right? Are there any rocks I can push in front of the cave?
DM: There is a very large rock above the cave. You'll have to roll to see if you can move it though.
<roll>
Fluttershy: Is a 20 on the die good?
Twilight Sparkle: Good? It's the best!
Pinkie Pie: Yay, Fluttershy!
Rainbow Dash: Got it! I attack the dragon with...
Rainbow Dash: ...it's already gone, isn't it.
Applejack: Eeeeeyup.
Guest Author's Note: "I find conflict resolution an interesting part of D&D. I love that the system (or 5e at least) has it built in that any method of removing a problem has the same results as defeating it in combat. Talk your way out of an encounter? So long as it was a permanent solution, you get the Experience points. Sneak through a dangerous area? So long as you don't have to go back through, that's EXP, bay-bee. It's neat that even though the game is extensively built around combat, there are ways to reward not picking a fight with everything you see.
In a similar vein, I find cartoons from this time period fascinating. Those familiar with this show know that it was considered one of the most violent shows of its time, and yet it's barely a blip on our modern radar. There's a certain charm in shows that had to find workarounds to just...beating the crap out of whatever villain has shown up this week."
D&D didn't have a good reputation with the 'adults' at this time period, so it was generally frowned upon. But now that all us 80s kids grew up we realized that this D&D stuff is actually really fun; violence isn't even necessary.
But sometimes beating the crap out of the villains is therapudic.
I can empathize with Dash here. It's always been a drawback to spontaneous casters in my experiences. The usual decision paralysis associated with casting gets a lot worse when the list of spells available becomes "Everything you know".
of course, if Dash had looked over her character sheet beforehand, she might not have needed to spend the whole battle trying to figure out which spells do what,
Spontaneous casters are balanced by restricting their spells known, though. Spells known for spontaneous casters and spells prepared for prepared casters generally scale similarly, so really it's mainly removing analysis when preparing spells in the morning and replacing it when analysis when leveling up.
And yet, so often in practice, DMs that I have played with don't hand out XP or treasure for non-combat solutions, thinking that the system only gives XP for combat (and that treasure that would be dropped by dead monsters, is not dropped if the monsters are not dead). Sure, there's plot advancement, but the guile hero who wins all the way through a megadungeon without once rolling initiative remains level 1 at the end of the megadungeon that is intended to carry PCs to level 20. Granted, much of this is (mis)remembering from earlier editions.
An important thing to remember about this era of cartoons was that it was a Really Big Deal™ for Duke to be visibly wounded, (not killed, wounded), in GI Joe.
In fact, there was really only one cartoon from back then that was willing to kill characters... My Little Pony.
Guest Author's Note: "I find conflict resolution an interesting part of D&D. I love that the system (or 5e at least) has it built in that any method of removing a problem has the same results as defeating it in combat. Talk your way out of an encounter? So long as it was a permanent solution, you get the Experience points. Sneak through a dangerous area? So long as you don't have to go back through, that's EXP, bay-bee. It's neat that even though the game is extensively built around combat, there are ways to reward not picking a fight with everything you see.
In a similar vein, I find cartoons from this time period fascinating. Those familiar with this show know that it was considered one of the most violent shows of its time, and yet it's barely a blip on our modern radar. There's a certain charm in shows that had to find workarounds to just...beating the crap out of whatever villain has shown up this week."