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Dimishing Return within Roles and Multiclassing
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<blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 4198235" data-attributes="member: 54710"><p>I largely agree with this analysis.</p><p></p><p>The key difference between 4E and 3.X here is in how powers combine. In 3.X, optimization was mostly about getting modifiers to stack. (Let's put aside, for the moment, the type of 3.X optimization that was about layering PrCs.) Usually, this involved sacrificing bonuses to secondary abilities in favor of bonuses to primary abilities. So, for example, fighters really cared about their to hit and damage bonuses on their primary weapons, but not so much on secondary types of attacks. This is the source of pain for 3.X multiclassers: for spellcasters, you can stack your caster level and your primary casting stat, but improving your melee attacks is a waste of effort.</p><p></p><p>In 4E, there are stacking modifiers. (For example, a rogue can spend a feat to improve his d6 weapon to a d8 weapon.) But many of the modifiers are taken care of by a steady increase of levels. What is new is a large collection of powers. This is what makes 4E like MtG: your selection of powers is like your "hand" in MtG. And the key decisions that a player makes in 4E is what power to use when.</p><p></p><p>This is why multiclassing is powerful in 4E. In a given situation, another role's power might be more useful than the powers from your role. For example, you may be a striker, but if there are many brutes charging your back line, a little stickiness goes a long way. Similarly, almost any non-controller is improved by having a single AoE power for when enemies are clumped together. Of course, this comes at the expense of a power within your role, but you will typically have a number of choices. A striker isn't exchanging his strike for an AoE. A striker is exchanging his 6th type of strike for his first AoE attack.</p><p></p><p>And a party where each member can do an OK job at fulfilling a 2nd role is *much* more powerful than a party where each member is restricted to its own role. In an encounter with many minions, it is really effective if several party members can be controllers for a round. In an encounter going badly, it is very powerful if the party can have manage a "spike" of healing where several people drop Healing/Inspiring Words in the same round. The ability for a party to, in a single round, spend multiple actions of the "right type" (AoE, healing, stickiness, etc...) could easily dominate a party's ability to have the best version of each type of action.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KidSnide, post: 4198235, member: 54710"] I largely agree with this analysis. The key difference between 4E and 3.X here is in how powers combine. In 3.X, optimization was mostly about getting modifiers to stack. (Let's put aside, for the moment, the type of 3.X optimization that was about layering PrCs.) Usually, this involved sacrificing bonuses to secondary abilities in favor of bonuses to primary abilities. So, for example, fighters really cared about their to hit and damage bonuses on their primary weapons, but not so much on secondary types of attacks. This is the source of pain for 3.X multiclassers: for spellcasters, you can stack your caster level and your primary casting stat, but improving your melee attacks is a waste of effort. In 4E, there are stacking modifiers. (For example, a rogue can spend a feat to improve his d6 weapon to a d8 weapon.) But many of the modifiers are taken care of by a steady increase of levels. What is new is a large collection of powers. This is what makes 4E like MtG: your selection of powers is like your "hand" in MtG. And the key decisions that a player makes in 4E is what power to use when. This is why multiclassing is powerful in 4E. In a given situation, another role's power might be more useful than the powers from your role. For example, you may be a striker, but if there are many brutes charging your back line, a little stickiness goes a long way. Similarly, almost any non-controller is improved by having a single AoE power for when enemies are clumped together. Of course, this comes at the expense of a power within your role, but you will typically have a number of choices. A striker isn't exchanging his strike for an AoE. A striker is exchanging his 6th type of strike for his first AoE attack. And a party where each member can do an OK job at fulfilling a 2nd role is *much* more powerful than a party where each member is restricted to its own role. In an encounter with many minions, it is really effective if several party members can be controllers for a round. In an encounter going badly, it is very powerful if the party can have manage a "spike" of healing where several people drop Healing/Inspiring Words in the same round. The ability for a party to, in a single round, spend multiple actions of the "right type" (AoE, healing, stickiness, etc...) could easily dominate a party's ability to have the best version of each type of action. [/QUOTE]
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