Annoyed with the Nerf Squad

[Black_Kaioshin]

I see alot of threads out there with alot of people complaining about this or that. "Oh.... a spell is actually useful and my character likes... it must be BROKEN!!" Well, I'm gonna complain about the Nerf Squad, those people out there who insist that everything remotely interesting about a game is broken.

I can't stand it. All I hear is "change this, its broken..." Gods, get over it. Ever since 3.5 came out and "fixed" everything, all of you maniacs insist on finding fault with everything a player can use. Opps, that character likes to teleport everywhere, its broken. Nevermind the fact that player characters get shafted all the time with a monsters super abilities. It seems that all you people just like to complain and "Unbalanced" rules or "broken" spells. I'm sorry but if everything in the game was "balanced and equal" it wouldn't be fun. The variants and options give a game flavor; fighter A and fighter B are both created with the ultra lame point-buy system, which is designed to make all the characters equally lame. Both of these wonderful examples of balance are exactly the same....

The differences in the game, whether they be stats, feats, or spells, are what make the game interesting. Take all that away, and you might as well not play. I doubt many people will agree with me, since there are many members of the Nerf Squad on this board. I'm just get sick and tired of every little thing that might be of interest or use to a pc get nerfed because some lame nerfer decides it "broken." WotC started a horrible trend here with their pathetic 3.5... but meh.

 

[Darkness]

1. You seem to confuse 'interesting' and 'option' with 'broken'.
If people didn't want interesting options, they could easily stick to the PHB and just not buy any supplements.
This is definitely not the case for many, if not most, people here.

2. The 'nerf squad' has been active since waaay before 3.5.

 

[dreaded_beast]

I agree with you for the most part (although I love 3.5 ).

I respect others views on how they prefer their particular campaign to be, but for myself, I hold pretty much the same view as what you have stated.

I'm just glad someone came out and said it before I did

 

[pogre]

Play it your way my friend. Certainly none of us in the nerf squad would fault you for that

 

[Wormwood]

I still prefer A Silent Wail.

 

[Zappo]

I haven't "nerfed" anything in my games since the 2E psionics handbook, but I am very satisfied with 3.5e.

I'm sorry but if everything in the game was "balanced and equal" it wouldn't be fun.

Huh? Balanced doesn't mean identical. In fact, you get more variety of characters where all choices are as balanced as possible. For example, if Magic Missile was modified to be on par with the other 1st level damage dealers, then you would see casters with different spell selections for their 1st level damage dealer (btw, I have nothing against the current MM). Unbalanced rules draw characters to themselves, and make them identical. In 3e, every single wizard took Haste and every single cleric took Harm. That is what makes characters identical. It is not a coincidence that a widely accepted definition of "broken" is "so good that everyone wants to take it".

Incidentally, have you ever actually used point buy in a game? I use point buy in all of my campaigns, and in the dozens of PCs that were created, I have yet to see two characters with the same stats.

 

[Black_Kaioshin]

In my experience, balanced usually means boring. Perhaps its just my particular group, I don't know.

I have indeed played with the point-buy system. Its not about the same stats, its the same range. If you want an 18, your other stats suffer. Or you can can have all your stats be about average (By average I mean 15, 14, 13, 10, and 8). I just don't like how all the characters are stuck having the same range of capabilites in the name of balance. It sort of takes the fun out of it in my opinion. I much prefer rolling randomly.

 

[Telperion]

The differences in the game, whether they be stats, feats, or spells, are what make the game interesting. Take all that away, and you might as well not play. I doubt many people will agree with me, since there are many members of the Nerf Squad on this board. I'm just get sick and tired of every little thing that might be of interest or use to a pc get nerfed because some lame nerfer decides it "broken." WotC started a horrible trend here with their pathetic 3.5... but meh.

I have to disagree with you here. I think that the characters behind those statistics; personalities, history, relationships, connections between various parties and everything else that can be placed under the heading "background" is what makes the game more interesting. The things that I just listed are the important thing to me in RPGs, or when portraying NPCs. The numbers and statistics are there simply to create "game balance" and "game stability", which are fancy words for saying: you have to have rules, or you end up with anarchy.

I use the Point Buy System exclusively in my campaigns. I also generate all of the NPC's with Standard Array, Non-Elite Array and Elite-Array. So, when I create an NPC the only time I roll dice is when I generate their hitpoints. Although there is a perfectly good chart for generating hitpoints as well I feel it's simpler to roll some dice in this case. * shrugs *

To put it another way: you like Crust, and I like Fluff (I think I got the jargon right). If you take either one away you might as well go play chess or participate in a play-act. It's not RPG anymore.

 

[Kershek]

A nerf in the hand is worth two in the bush.

 

[tarchon]

Players are broken.