Quote Originally Posted by Quertus View Post
And why should the DM need to learn the rules of, say, incarnate or ToB in order to allow such a character? As a DM, I've allowed plenty of material blind, and it's worked out fine. I'm not the one running the character, the player is - it's the player who needs to understand the rules for their character.
I can't tell you how many times in the last 10 years I had to learn the rules of whatever new class/etc. a player wanted to play.

You know why I have to know the rules of their classes, and can't just go off of their say-so? Because when I do I constantly have this interaction in the middle of a session:

Player: My character activates such-and-such ability.
Me: Which does what?
Player: It allows me to do [some ridiculously overpowered thing].
Me: Wait, it does what?!

*Looks up ability*
*Reads it with knowledge of what the game terms actually mean*

Me: Um, no. What that ability actually allows you to do is this [other, non-game-breaking thing].