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<blockquote data-quote="dropbear8mybaby" data-source="post: 6959163" data-attributes="member: 6863518">My preferred option is that there aren't preferred options which is also why I make a significant effort to rebalance system mechanics in my own game. The only reason I optimise or encourage it, is because there even is a gap at all and I don't want my players to suffer simply because of a &quot;wrong&quot; choice at one point or another during character advancement.If the playing field is level and there are no superior options, then you don't have to optimise and all choices add interesting options rather than power development or delay. Obviously some builds will always be better in some circumstances, but that's not the balance I'm talking about. Variety is interesting, being good at something is interesting, but when there is clearly an optimal choice across multiple instances, then that really isn't a choice anymore.Take Great Weapon Master. If you fight with a two-handed, heavy weapon, then this choice is clearly, far and away, the best feat choice to make. That's no longer really a choice for the character. Now, if GWM was good but there was another option, and those two options were not clearly better overall in most situations, than the other, then you have an interesting choice to make that defines the character in different ways.So optimisation for me isn't really so much about power as it is about necessity due to system imbalance.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="dropbear8mybaby, post: 6959163, member: 6863518"] My preferred option is that there aren't preferred options which is also why I make a significant effort to rebalance system mechanics in my own game. The only reason I optimise or encourage it, is because there even [I]is[/I] a gap at all and I don't want my players to suffer simply because of a "wrong" choice at one point or another during character advancement. If the playing field is level and there are no superior options, then you don't have to optimise and all choices add interesting options rather than power development or delay. Obviously some builds will always be better in some circumstances, but that's not the balance I'm talking about. Variety is interesting, being good at something is interesting, but when there is clearly an optimal choice across multiple instances, then that really isn't a choice anymore. Take Great Weapon Master. If you fight with a two-handed, heavy weapon, then this choice is clearly, far and away, the best feat choice to make. That's no longer really a choice for the character. Now, if GWM was good but there was another option, and those two options were not clearly better overall in most situations, than the other, then you have an interesting choice to make that defines the character in different ways. So optimisation for me isn't really so much about power as it is about necessity due to system imbalance. [/QUOTE]

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