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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Windjammer" data-source="post: 5152159" data-attributes="member: 60075">For me the problem with options-bloat in D&D 3.x and 4E is that the options that get bloated are (a) very nuanced i.e. very specific and very fine-grained and (b) rarely invite you to make the stuff you've chosen "your own". Let me explain.I remember a good discussion on the new "base classes" when Player's Handbook 2 came out for 3.x. Some people wondered, "why introduce a knight class? shouldn't the paladin cover that?". I think that response holds the kernel of a truth that is far more generally applicable. WotC has been very good at giving their customers endless lists of fully spelled out options instead of saying, "lo, behold, here's a paladin class, flesh it out however you like - here's a couple of slots you can customize". So instead of giving you, the customer, a general idea you can toy with (and a couple of instances merely by matter of illustrating that general idea) they deliberately withhold the general idea and then "spam options". Good instances would be this:1. In the revised 3.5 PHB, there were all those feats which gave two +2 on skills. Why not have a single feat "Pick a feat to get to +2's to two skills of your choice"?2. Divine Domain feats in 4E Divine Power. Instead of saying "Get a +2 to a skill of your choice [note the similarity to 1.?] and a bonus on a level 1 at-will of your choice" they spammed a chapter full of individual spelled out things.And that's the catch. Open your character builder to select feats ... you'll be blown away by the number of options. And then behold the twin problems engendered by design choices (a) and (b) above: when you made a choice you didn't like, you aren't invited to think "how can I improve the options I have chosen?", rather you're invited to "re-train"... go back to the step when you chose among fully specified options by WotC. At no step would you go back and say, "hmmm maybe I fleshed out my (own) take on the paladin class in a manner I didn't like, let me try to take a new take on that class" (or feat or spell or power... you name it).And that is the trap. You're trapped in forever picking, switching, and exchangning among extant options fully spelled out for you - without ever breaking out of that circle. You're deliberately kept away from thinking about the options you've chosen in a more free-form way. Instead of thinking "hmm, I didn't like that cup of coffee, maybe next time I should take a bit more sugar" you're trapped into thinking "hmm, I didn't like that Macchiato X12, next time I should go for Nespresso #13". That, at least, is the thing I've personally observed myself when going through the option splats in 3.x and 4E. I make no pretense at a generally valid observation, but that's the impact on my psychology when interacting with that material. On reflection, I'd prefer a game that gave me fewer options with greater potential to inspire me to flesh them out in the individual bits and pieces, greater potential to make my choices my own.</blockquote>

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