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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8869238" data-attributes="member: 6877472">One man's powergaming is another man's base competency level.  What you really need to say to your players is to not optimize all the fun out of the game (which is what humans tend to do by their very nature).But even then, "fun" is a nebulous concept in of itself.  The fact that not all the building blocks you can use to create your character are of the same shape or size.  Some races are better at others at certain tasks.  Some classes are better than others at certain tasks.  Ditto with subclasses, feats, and spells.Is taking a race that's obviously meant to be good at fighting, with a class that's good at fighting, with the best subclass available for being a combat character, along with the best feats overpowered?  Is it powergaming to choose these things?That's like saying you're powergaming when you go to the store and buy the generic brand that is basically the same as the name brand, but 2/3 the price!And is the best fighting character on the same level as the best spellcasting character?  So what level of optimization is ok for warriors when even an average Wizard player can select a spell at random from the PHB, and there's a decent chance that there is a situation it's the best spell for?If you want to keep your game at a set power level, there is a very long list of things you have to exclude, and most players will chafe at those restrictions.  A DM I knew once was starting a game and decided to say that there were only three non-human races allowed, and there could only be one of each of them in the party, and they also banned a few classes.One of the other players took one look at the list and said "well gee, why don't you just make our characters for us, then?"Needless to say, that game didn't happen, because not enough players were interested with so many constraints on what they were allowed to play.I once ran a game where I banned Paladins, and despite the fact that nobody even came to me with a Paladin character concept, I was constantly having to defend my position!The ultimate problem with trying to figure out how to balance the game, of course, is the fact that Wizards of the Coast hasn't bothered to do it themselves.  They're always making changes, but it really feels like which things get buffed and which things get nerfed are decided not by feedback or playtesting, but throwing darts at a board.</blockquote>

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