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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6643046" data-attributes="member: 97077">Here's something I think is worth considering:In a well-designed encounter (or scene of conflict if you will), there should be challenge and difficulty. Many times these concepts are conflated, but they are different. Challenge is when there is a conflict that can go either way - the PCs can win or lose (whatever winning or losing means in context) based on what they choose to do. Difficulty is how hard it is to achieve success. The choices of the PCs in a well-designed challenge can either increase or decrease the difficulty. Naturally, players will want to make solid choices that decrease the difficulty to increase their chances of success and - in a D&D context - will generally cost them the least amount of resources.However, there is a problem with this: Reducing the difficulty too much can also make the challenge less satisfying, especially if the choices involved in reducing the difficulty are essentially the same from encounter to encounter. So we have these groups of optimizers (a term I don't use pejoratively) that are essentially using the same tactics over and over. They've got particular feats because they feel those are "must-have" choices. The cleric is a bless machine. And so on. The same operating procedure is trotted out every time initiative is rolled. The challenge is subsequently reduced in difficulty and is, as a result, less satisfying.Because these scenes are less satisfying, the goals of play - having a good time together and creating an exciting, memorable story by playing - are harder to achieve. As a result, the group searches for a solution and settles on getting rid of or changing the feats. That's fine, as far as that goes. Really though, the problem is the players choosing particular procedures for reducing the difficulty to an unsatisfying level. This is like always playing a computer or console game on Easy Mode. Can it be fun? Sure, for a time. But since we know that some measure of difficulty is necessary for a satisfying game experience, it's important to keep this in mind and to temper one's choices so as to more easily achieve the goals of play.</blockquote>

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