Could more "option" books be a "bad" thing?

dreaded_beast · Dec 4, 2003

Have you ever designed your character and were pretty happy with it, until one day, WoTC comes out with a new book, and like most players I know including myself, flip to the new feat and PrC sections?

Once there you find all these "must have" feats and PrCs then start to regret your current class choices...

I like new books coming out, but sometimes having so many options is sometimes overwhelming and may cause me to appreciate my character less, because of something it could have been.

Silveras · Dec 4, 2003

Yes and no. I occasionally "regret" that a feat did not exist when my character could have, and probably would have, wanted it most. But I don't think the ever-increasing selection of feats (and/or PrCs) is bad in and of itself.

Feats: More feats means each character can be a little more unique. If you are agonizing over which to take, that is a sign that those feats (or feat-chains) are fairly well balanced (as in equally desirable). I know players who like to min-max, and they have a love/hate relationship with new books. They love them for more ways to tweak a character, but they hate them because they can't have it all in one character. These people also exhibit the (IMHO mistaken) belief or assumption that you're supposed to be able to "get 'em all" for one character.

PrCs: This one is harder for me to justify. There are three main types of PrCs -- mechanic fixers/exploiters, organization members, and niche roles. To be valuable, the PrC either has to be nearly-flavorless (mechanic fixer/exploiter) and the DM has to add it all for his/her world, or has to have a flavor that is adaptable to any world (niche roles and organization members). Of the ones that need to be adaptable, many aren't. The Red Wizard of Thay and the Thayan Knight are two examples of classes that *probably* should stay in FR. IMHO, a DM is better served looking at them as models and making his/her own organizational PrCs for his/her world than trying to adapt them to fit. However, I still consider such PrCs good for inspiration. When Sword & Fist came out, I sort-of liked the Cavalier and sort-of liked the Warmaster, but was not really overwhelmed with either. So, I made my own -- the Noble Knight, which had moderately high requirements to enter, and mixed some of the Cavalier's horsemanship with the warmaster's troop leadership. And it was "just right" for my world.

Desdichado · Dec 4, 2003

Nope. And I don't flip to those sections first; I usually just skim those because they're horribly dry reading.

astralpwka · Dec 4, 2003

New material still has to fit my original character concept, otherwise it just leads to inspiring the next character.

I like to at least skim through the Prestige Classes and examine the charts, but I also leave the feats sections alone until I need something, as I have little interest in varying a previously designed character concept.

Wombat · Dec 4, 2003

These books are, if nothing else, a survival necessity for a company like WotC.

If they do not make more books, they do not have product to sell. Yes, they continue to sell the core books, but unless they get something out to their central fans on a regular basis, they will not have the money to continue to produce the core books.

So while supplementitis is rampant in all succesful rpgs, it is also necessary, due to the business model.

After that, I leave all choices between you and your budget

Numion · Dec 4, 2003

dreaded_beast said:
Once there you find all these "must have" feats and PrCs then start to regret your current class choices...

People can just as easily come to regret their PC choices even if no new feats or PrCs were published. Me and my players have noticed many times that something they chose turned out to suck.

You can remedy the situation by allowing people change their choices after the fact. Not too difficult, IMO .

jrients · Dec 4, 2003

dreaded_beast said:
Have you ever designed your character and were pretty happy with it, until one day, WoTC comes out with a new book, and like most players I know including myself, flip to the new feat and PrC sections?

Once there you find all these "must have" feats and PrCs then start to regret your current class choices...

I like new books coming out, but sometimes having so many options is sometimes overwhelming and may cause me to appreciate my character less, because of something it could have been.

You pretty much just described my group's first encounter with the original Unearthed Arcana. There it was, all chock full of new toys ready to run roughshod over our current campaign. We were too young and stupid to realize you have to be careful when implementing new stuff.

Buttercup · Dec 4, 2003

Perhaps this is a reason to be like most of my players, who have no books at all (but use the SRD) or only have the PHB.

Davelozzi · Dec 4, 2003

I like having new options, including new ways to look at things that have been around for a while. Books like Complete Warrior, or most of the old splatbooks, despite their flaws (including some imbalanced items) still find a lot more use in our campaigns than many of the better designed but more specialized titles like Draconomicon or whatever else.

MerakSpielman · Dec 4, 2003

Only problem I have as a DM is maintaining verisimlitude... I don't want a PrC to exist if the PC who wants it is the only member. I have to insert a new society/organization into my world and figure out how it's interacting with all the other ones.

But I'm weird like that.