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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5490513" data-attributes="member: 1210">They go hand in hand.Sure, but now you're basically throwing out half of 3e. The game is built on all those fiddly bits.Sure. But ability damage and dispelling- which IMHO is a worse offender- both cause a screeching halt for recalculation, especially when you're dealing with high level pcs. It's one thing if you just have to remember that you have a -1 to attacks and damage, but when it is -1 to attacks and damage with this weapon, -1 to attacks only with this other weapon, -1 to attacks and -2 to damage with this one, can't use feats A, B and C, can't use prestige class abilities, oh yeah, this magic item I have gives me my Strength bonus in temporary hit points when I use it, so I have to remember to lower that, etc etc ad infinitum...While that's a fine position to take, it's pretty arbitrary. While I'll admit a lot of prcs are problematic, not all are, and the mechanism is- again- a fairly central part of the ruleset. What we're talking about is the interaction of two fairly core game engine elements. Saying, "Oh, it's the prestige class' fault" is fine, but again, you're moving pretty far away from 3e's basic play assumptions.Again, that's fine, but you're getting away from the core 3e engine. Taking a high level character as an example here, a 14th level party whose cleric suddenly can't cast anything better than cure moderate wounds is nearly a death sentence. If that same party's wizard's best combat spell is suddenly Melf's acid arrow instead of prismatic spray, there's a huge loss of effectiveness. Recalculating everything is a PITA in 3e, and (at least at mid to high levels) it comes up ALL THE TIME. Maybe not every single combat, but damn close. Between ability damage and drain, energy drain, dispels, disjunctions, etc, I probably watched my party spend as much time refiguring boni at actually taking actions in high-level combat.</blockquote>

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