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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 4582204" data-attributes="member: 3146">it's not all power creep in the usual sense of the term. Before adventurer's vault, there were only a few superior weapons: A superior reach weapon flailA superior one-handed sword (that also happened to be ever so slightly superior to the two-handed sword because the greatsword is a lousy weapon)A superior light bladethere were no superior axes, hammers, spears, javalins, one-handed flails, or daggers.The character who wanted to spend a feat to get a better weapon before Adventurer's Vault did so if he wielded a sword and shield. If he wielded a warhammer, on the other hand, he was out of luck. 4th edition's tying of various weapon feats to various statistics (Hammer/Con/Hammer Rhythm, etc) means that, for most planned characters (which is most characters), their weapon type of choice is set at character creation. The dwarf with a 16 Str/18 Con is going to wield hammers. The dwarf with the 18 Str/15 Con is going to wield axes, etc. So what happened when adventurers vault brought out superior axes, hammers, etc is that the characters who were already committed by build to wield a type of weapon that was not supported by a superior weapon in the PHB, gained access to superior weapons, went out, and bought them.Now, there is a little power creep involved. Dwarven Weapon Training and Eladrin Soldier are classic examples of power creep via future expansion, much like polymorph or druid wildshape were in 3rd edition. You have access to all hammers, axes, spears, and longswords, just wait until a better one comes out and you have access to it. Likewise, the double sword works out as a clear and obvious upgrade for the previous superior light blade (the rapier), largely because the characters who previously used the rapier did not have much to do with their off-hand anyway. But power creep in 4th edition is better seen in the powers of the Adventurer's Vault items (encounter powers on numerous magic items, etc) and the classes, backgrounds, and feats in the Forgotten Realms book, and the powers, feats, and alternate class features (the latter mostly for fighters) in Martial Power than in the superior weapons from Adventurer's Vault.</blockquote>

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