D&D General Is power creep bad?

[Micah Sweet]

I think power creep can be ok, as long as older options can get in on the fun, and the general rules were a little harder on PCs and monsters had more oomph. Since neither of these issues are likely to be addressed by WotC, I'm inclined to dislike power creep.

That said, it is a necessary evil if you want new options in your game.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Point taken: there was that one time when WotC completely misunderstood their audience to the point of creating their biggest rival since the debut of the World of Darkness, because they embraced the rather curious notion that people wanted to make sure everyone got exactly the same number of chocolate chips in each of their same number of cookies when pretending to be (not-Keebler) elves.

As usual, no one critical of 4e can discuss it without either staying blatant falsehoods or trumpeting useless edition-warring.

But I suppose that's a step up from pretending it simply didn't exist at all.

 

[Reynard]

I think power creep can be ok, as long as older options can get in on the fun, and the general rules were a little harder on PCs and monsters had more oomph. Since neither of these issues are likely to be addressed by WotC, I'm inclined to dislike power creep.

That said, it is a necessary evil if you want new options in your game.

In my experience, especially having a couple very analytical power gamer regular players as I do, the power of individual abilities that have been added is much less of a concern than how they might unexpectedly synergize with other abilities.

 

[Reynard]

As usual, no one critical of 4e can discuss it without either staying blatant falsehoods or trumpeting useless edition-warring.

But I suppose that's a step up from pretending it simply didn't exist at all.

I mean, I didn't say anything about 4E. You brought it up in a condescending way. You could have just assumed I did not play 4E and left it alone, but you didn't.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I mean, I didn't say anything about 4E. You brought it up in a condescending way. You could have just assumed I did not play 4E and left it alone, but you didn't.

Saying "D&D has never done X" when there is an edition of D&D that did X is, in fact, saying something about the edition that did that thing.

 

[Campbell]

Power creep as in raising the floor (ways to bring up under performing archetypes) is something I consider valuable. Power creep that raises the ceiling (making powerful archetypes more powerful) not so much. I would generally prefer revision of underperforming archetypes, but that is really difficult in a tabletop environment.

 

[Oofta]

When you played D&D before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You just like to roleplay
Your champion fighter makes me cry
You just like the fluff
And the lore of the campaign world
I wish I was special
Gonna make my character so special

But I'm a creep
I'm a powergamer
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

I don't care if pun-pun is lame
I wanna have control
I’m gonna play the perfect game
It won’t matter what I roll
I want the DM to notice
When my PC is not around
So friggin' special
My multiclassed optimized PC is special…

But I'm a creep
I'm a powergamer
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

Hmm ... for someone who claims to hate bards, this kind of ditty is exactly what a bard would write. Perhaps the Snarf doth protest too much?

 

[payn]

Yes it's me again
And I'm back
Oh I, oh I, oh I, yeah
Oh I, oh I, oh I, baby
Oh I, oh I, oh I, yeah

The 22nd level and we've been through so many modules
I love my DM with all honesty, but I know he's cheating me
I look him in his eyes but all he tells me is lies to keep me nerfed
I'll never leave him down
Though I might mess around
It's only 'cause I need some power affection

So I creep, yeah, just keep it on the down low
Said nobody is supposed to know
So I creep, yeah, cause DM doesn't know what I do
And no attention goes to show, oh so I creep

 

[Reynard]

Saying "D&D has never done X" when there is an edition of D&D that did X is, in fact, saying something about the edition that did that thing.

While I am not sure why you find it necessary to defend a previous edition from unintentional slander, I can see that this is something you care about so I apologize for my snarky response. It was unnecessarily combative.

That said I don't think it is helpful to continue this "discussion".

 

[TwoSix]

The only way to avoid power creep is to either

a) introduce no new options (boring)
b) introduce new options which are inferior in every way to currently existing options, and only differentiated by a different narrative gloss (also boring)
c) make something that introduces an entirely new concept, that doesn't conflict or challenge any pre-existing concept (better, but much more difficult, and becoming near impossible as options proliferate).

Power creep also causes supplement treadmills, increasing complexity, and then a need to reboot with new editions to clear the decks. I'm a fan of all those things!