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"Combat Optimized" versus "Role-playing" -- One Dude's Perspective (looong)
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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 5112804" data-attributes="member: 3424"><p>For what it's worth, I don't agree with that statement either. A character who is sub-optimally built for combat may have less <em>survivability</em> than other characters, and hence, may produce a <em>shorter than average</em> role-playing experience, but that does not, in itself, necessarily produce an <em>inferior</em> role-playing experience. </p><p></p><p>I think calls for combat optimization tend to stem from the concern that characters who are not optimized for combat would tend to lower the party's chances of surviving combat encounters. The actual underlying issue, IMO, is a little murkier: what is the permissible trade-off between a player's vision for his character and how competent the other players expect his character to be? Different people will have different opinions on this, ranging from the view that a player's character is entirely his own, and the other players have no right to expect anything from him, to the view that a player is being irresponsible if he fails to bring anything but a completely optimized character to the table, and various other shades in between.</p><p></p><p>That said, I personally believe that the 4E game system is actually quite forgiving of unoptimized characters - to a certain extent. I think the single most significant determinant of character effectiveness is ability score allocation, not feat or power choices, and as long as the character has a decent ability score in his primary attribute (and to me, 14 is "decent"), he will be effective enough.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 5112804, member: 3424"] For what it's worth, I don't agree with that statement either. A character who is sub-optimally built for combat may have less [I]survivability[/I] than other characters, and hence, may produce a [I]shorter than average[/I] role-playing experience, but that does not, in itself, necessarily produce an [I]inferior[/I] role-playing experience. I think calls for combat optimization tend to stem from the concern that characters who are not optimized for combat would tend to lower the party's chances of surviving combat encounters. The actual underlying issue, IMO, is a little murkier: what is the permissible trade-off between a player's vision for his character and how competent the other players expect his character to be? Different people will have different opinions on this, ranging from the view that a player's character is entirely his own, and the other players have no right to expect anything from him, to the view that a player is being irresponsible if he fails to bring anything but a completely optimized character to the table, and various other shades in between. That said, I personally believe that the 4E game system is actually quite forgiving of unoptimized characters - to a certain extent. I think the single most significant determinant of character effectiveness is ability score allocation, not feat or power choices, and as long as the character has a decent ability score in his primary attribute (and to me, 14 is "decent"), he will be effective enough. [/QUOTE]
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