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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5505856" data-attributes="member: 2011">Note the word adjust.Yes. PCs optimized over a long period of time with the absolute most broken original PHB elements would have an easier time.This is pretty obvious. The game wasn't necessarily easy, the best broken uber options in the game that should have never seen the light of day made it easy for some select PC builds.If it were so easy, then how come PCs were going unconscious right and left, and some even died, a lot in the early heroic days? There are tons of such posts here in ENWorld, just go look.Is it just because the players didn't understand the system for the first 6 months?Is it that DMs refused to use the DMG monster guidelines?Maybe to some extent, but it's mostly because the later synergies made the game easier.Most groups got hit pretty hard by IronTooth. Entire parties got TPKed.Now, IronTooth is a speed bump. A real tough encounter that should be won by most 1st level groups that have PCs that are well designed. Not optimized to the nth degree, just designed with decent options.Irontooth now is what the designers wanted Irontooth to be in the first place. Irontooth then was a terror because the players didn't have the tools at first level to handle him.Yup.Until your party adjusted their abilities and tactics, they got smoked because they didn't yet have the best feats, powers, and items.Your entire "I ran an epic campaign" so I am right and you are wrong concept is in error. I didn't run an epic campaign, just a single encounter, but I ran quite a few heroic adventures and paragon adventures pre-Adventure's Vault.And in both tiers, the PCs were getting their butts handed to them on occasion. It wasn't just an easy walk in the park. Course, maybe you don't challenge your PCs. Since I never saw my players just smoke the opposition day in and day out, it's probably because I ran a more difficult campaign than you did. Or, maybe your players are tactical genuises. The fact is that not everyone has your anecdotal experience.Players have it easy. They run the same PC session in and session out and they just keep learning more and more about how to run the PC and how to run the group.The DM has it much harder. The DM has to adapt more. One of the reasons that your players started kicking your butt is because they adapted and got better with the same PCs whereas like most campaigns, you most likely had new monsters most encounters with new abilities which you didn't have time to play tactically the best every time. By the time the DM learns how to better run undead, the PCs aren't fighting undead anymore.So, maybe the fact that your players got better wasn't totally in the game system.Your players gamed the most egregious of the original balance flaws and adjusted their tactics accordingly, and it allowed them to be overly successful.And every time those balance flaws were corrected, your players struggled more again.Just like players today game the most egregious of synergy bonuses from many sources and it allows them to be overly successful.The balance field just shifted. For all of the errata that WotC puts in to attempt to maintain balance, they offset that by putting out new material that by itself might be balanced, but via synergy of so many other options can be abused.Expertise alone proves that.How much stronger would have your PHB only Epic PCs have been with Expertise in their pockets when they were PHB only?Obviously, if every PC would have taken it, they would have done 20% to 30% more damage per round on average at Epic with a single feat.How can you not consider this huge??? 20% to 30% more damage with a single feat.How can you not consider this one feat as making Paragon and Epic tiers a lot easier?There are so many examples of this anymore.Lightning Arc is so much more useful than Scorching Burst. The blast Wizard is no longer pressured as much to take Improved Initiative in order to possibly get lucky early on with SB. Now, he can take other feats.The masterwork armor boosts in Adventure Vault. The heavy armored PCs don't get toasted as bad in Paragon.Feats like White Lotus Riposte. If a foe comes in and targets the arcane caster PC, that PC can now do extra damage that he couldn't with core.The list goes on and on and on and on and on. Most of it is not unbalanced by itself, but there are some strong options which combined with specific other options, becomes extremely potent, hence, making the game easier.One other note: the game is also now easier because there are entire web pages devoted to optimizing, there are posts all over our gaming community talking about stronger tactics and things to avoid, and players/DMs everywhere are constantly learning.The game has matured and by definition, that makes it easier too.Until last summer, one thing that didn't get too significantly bigger, better, badder, and stronger was the monsters. They stayed pretty much the same and the PCs started toasting them easier and easier.</blockquote>

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