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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riastlin" data-source="post: 5506472" data-attributes="member: 94022">But more synergies doesn't necessarily equate to more power.  Rather, it means you can do one or two things particularly well, but are likely not as good at others.  A wizard can become pretty darn good with psychic powers and deal a lot of damage/control.  But to get exceedingly good (i.e. maximize synergies) he has to sacrifice other areas and he'll definitely feel that when he comes up against creatures resistant to psychic damage or with high wills.No. If I have 1 way to kill you, you only have to defend against one thing. If I have 5 ways to kill you, you have to defend against 5 things and monsters don't have that luxury.No, it doesn't.  Usually in fact, versatility comes with the trade off of not being as powerful in any one facet, but capable in a multitude of areas.  versatility is certainly a form of power, but it generally comes with a price.  Otherwise, by your definition, everybody should just play a bard and watch the DM cry.  After all, no class comes anywhere near to the bard in terms of versatility.  A bard can get just about any power, most feats, most paragon paths and epic destinies, etc.  So clearly, the bard must be far and away the most powerful class in the game.  Don't get me wrong, the 4e bard is a great class that is pretty much perfectly balanced with all the others, but its not far and away the most powerful class.  They are the Jacks of All Trades, but the Masters of None.  Their versatility makes them as powerful as the rest, not more powerful.  Evidently we aren't since there are no 3e characters in my 4ed game.  And for an equally useless comparison, the modern day marine would kick the 4ed fighter's butt in my opinion.  I will agree though that I would find a 3e fighter incredibly boring to play and that 3e was rather unbalanced.  The unbalancing was not so much a factor of the number of spells available to casters though as it was a factor of what those spells could do.  Going back to the 4ed Bard example, he's not overpowered despite all those options.  But if the bard were to heal like a cleric, control like a wizard, hit like a sorceror, and tank like a fighter, then it would be overpowered.Again I'll reiterate that synergy makes you better in certain areas, but generally at a price in others.A fair point.Actually, I believe I already stated that surgeless healing (and hence the pacifist cleric) was the biggest example of creep in the game.  And oh by the way, it was also hit with the nerf bat pretty much across the board.  I do think though that perhaps I should clarify.  There has been some creep.  Its almost impossible to avoid creep altogether after all.  However, creep is not what necessitated the change in monster damage.  Monsters, particularly at high levels, were easily outclassed from the get go.  That has been a constant in the game throughout 4ed.  Even my less optimizing players find themselves rarely missing.  Its usually a small thing for a party to gain quick control of the situation.  This isn't necessarily bad, after all the PCs should usually win, but it got to the point where it was nearly impossible to challenge the party without making the encounter at least 3 or 4 levels above the party's, or by putting in "bad" combos of monsters (like the wraiths of the White Shrine).  Did they go too far?  I don't know, only time will tell.  Must the party nova every fight in order to survive?  No, unless the DM has failed to adjust and is still throwing L +3 or 4 encounters at the party on a regular basis.  At the end of the day though, we are finding the fights a lot more entertaining, which is what counts.  They are not 5 minute work days, but the players are having to think things through more carefully.  Most equal level encounters will still be fairly doable for the party, but they do require the players to play smart.  They can't just wade in and start swinging.  They can't always save up all their dailies for the final boss fight either, which is also making those fights better.  Coincidentally, using dailies earlier can also help extend the work day as it allows the party to use fewer surges.Edit to add:  Kudos btw for being polite in your disagreement.  Far too many people would simply go into a rage.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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