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<blockquote data-quote="Herschel" data-source="post: 5567257" data-attributes="member: 78357">This is not a.... realistic (?) view though. If the DM is an active adversary for the PCs, the game has issues. There generally isn't quite so fine a line between life &amp; death unless the DM is trying to manipulate things to kill the characters. If the party is less optimized then the DM has less impetus to &quot;go for the kill&quot;, per se. My point is being blinded by optimization numbers can blind you to what's actually most effective. It's a group game and the group is stronger than the individual. &nbsp;In other words, the difference between an effective character and an &quot;optimized&quot; character isn't that great, and at times the effective character is simply better for the party. &nbsp;Take the Warlord, for example. By not using the Greatbow, I may give up a point of damage, but then I have the rattling keyword on my bread &amp; butter at-will. My damage accelerator for the party is just as good and actually the power is better FOR THE PARTY because I'm imposing a -2 to hit and my heals do more healing.&nbsp; So the defender gets missed a little more and has to burn fewer surges. He's able to do his job better and longer because of my help while I still added my damage to the equation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Herschel, post: 5567257, member: 78357"] This is not a.... realistic (?) view though. If the DM is an active adversary for the PCs, the game has issues. There generally isn't quite so fine a line between life & death unless the DM is trying to manipulate things to kill the characters. If the party is less optimized then the DM has less impetus to "go for the kill", per se. My point is being blinded by optimization numbers can blind you to what's actually most effective. It's a group game and the group is stronger than the individual. In other words, the difference between an effective character and an "optimized" character isn't that great, and at times the effective character is simply better for the party. Take the Warlord, for example. By not using the Greatbow, I may give up a point of damage, but then I have the rattling keyword on my bread & butter at-will. My damage accelerator for the party is just as good and actually the power is better FOR THE PARTY because I'm imposing a -2 to hit and my heals do more healing. So the defender gets missed a little more and has to burn fewer surges. He's able to do his job better and longer because of my help while I still added my damage to the equation. [/QUOTE]

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