4E Power Creep--Forked Thread: As long as we are talking...

[Mark]

Power creeep is inevitable, IMO, in all games that last more than a year or so and/or extend their rules and supplements beyond a handful of books, partly because it is what keeps many types of players coming back to the well but also because balance is impossible to sustain and racheting up sells books while racheting down loses fans.

 

[AllisterH]

There's something of a "more fun" creep in the monsters of MM2 versus thse of MM1.

Ex: The giants from MM2 seem more *fun* than the MM1 giants. Same goes for the minions and the solos as well in general.

 

[Rechan]

Ex: The giants from MM2 seem more *fun* than the MM1 giants. Same goes for the minions and the solos as well in general.

I donno; I think the storm giants look rather fun.

 

[Obryn]

With any expanding system with intricate rules, option creep will become power creep. The more choices you have, the more likely there will be clear "best choices" for your specific goals.

Also, the likelihood becomes greater that two or more things will combine in an abusive fashion.

I'm happy with everything so far, but I think it's pretty inevitable. One saving grace of the 4e system is that - so far, anyway - each class is very limited in what it can snag from other classes; and you can only dip into two classes, most of the time. This keeps a firewall of sorts up between each class structure, so at least it makes the insane combos harder to find.

-O

 

[MrMyth]

Interestingly enough, I'd say the level of disagreement over Bard vs Warlord in this very thread makes for a pretty good argument in its own right that the two are reasonably well balanced.

In regards to the basic topic... I think there is power creep, but that it has been at a pretty slight incline thus far, save for a few exceptions. (The Expertise feats, mainly.) As more options are put out, there will always be indirect creep, of course. Direct creep is easier to avoid, but WotC hasn't fully managed to do so - but the current pace of it doesn't worry me too much.

The initial books of options expanded the power of the initial classes. I suspect the current level of power, however, will remain relatively stable on their own - since, now, we will start to see a cycle of new classes, plus new options for those classes, which will keep them on par with the current power builds. The new classes themselves in PHB2 were not more powerful than the PHB1 classes, in my opinion and experience. That's the key that will keep power creep relatively under control as the edition continues to expand.