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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8468626" data-attributes="member: 71699">Intuitively, I wouldn't both limit character HP and reduce monster damage dealing. That seems self-defeating (characters have fewer HP, but monsters deal less damage!) My feeling is not at all that monsters deal too much damage - only a reality check that fighter HP will still feel meaningfully different from wizard HP. Also, by my estimation capped at 5th a wizard is fairly likely to be taken down in one round by many of higher CR creatures (at least CR 5, and upwards), while at 6th I think they generally will survive one round.Agreed!Also agreed, and a strong reason not to weaken monsters! In my experience the great majority of by-the-book creatures are not too challenging for characters.Agreed.As an example, for Clerics interested in joining melee, it is hard to see why anyone would pick the Bonus Proficiencies feature from Life or Nature when they could instead gain the strictly better version from Tempest or War. Getting martial weapons and heavy armor, rather than heavy armor. I don't see why any fighter choosing Combat Superiority from Battlemaster would invest a pick in Student of War or Know Your Enemy when they could instead add Spellcasting or Arcane Charge from Eldritch Knight. Similarly, what prevents a player taking say Totem Spirit and then Retaliation?For me, the fundamental issue with offering class and subclass features as picks is that they are not equal in value. That isn't a matter of a minor discrepancy: it's between a ribbon and a near-double-feat. One option I tried in my earlier drafts was to price features in ASI-equivalents (the 1, 2, 4 scale where 2 = an ASI) and give characters 2 points at each level which they could save up if desired. I set it aside for two reasons. One is that it is very hard to correctly anticipate and cost all combinations that result in imbalance, even where the parts are individually balanced. Second, it was tangential to my goals as it delivered on customisation, but not at all on vulnerability or mortality.</blockquote>

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