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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4264841" data-attributes="member: 32164">No, it won't completely unbalance the combat system. In fact, it won't unbalance it in the slightest. If there's nothing unbalancing about two separate characters using the same power in an encounter, then there's clearly nothing unbalancing about one character doing the same thing.What you will lose is variety. Characters will always use the best power they've got for a given situation, even if that's the same encounter power they used 4 rounds ago. Let's say you're fighting in an area with precarious terrain. Assuming you have only one power that "pushes" or "slides" your opponents, you only have to worry about the PC using that once in an encounter. For the rest, he has to come up with creative ways to use the terrain. However, if he can just reuse that same power, then that's exactly what he'll do. Three times. BOrrr-ing.By contrast, if the character only has 1 push power, but he's got two others that let him do other things, the fight won't turn into "push the bad guy in the pit" and "rinse, lather, repeat."Different powers forces the PCs to come up with interesting combinations. For instance, I'm sure there are synergistic team combos where one person uses a per-encounter power and the others all use at-wills in order to set up the bad guys for something nasty. That's the essence of fun gaming.I finally "got" the reasoning when I was discussing the rationale for "per-encounter" force powers with Rodney Thompson in the months leading up to the release of Star Wars Saga Edition. A character using the same ability over and over and over again is, bluntly put, bo-ring. The system is set up the way it is to encourage characters to come up with a variety of tactics, and to come up with new and interesting combos. By the time they're out of new combinations to try, they have gained new powers and a whole new range of tactics opens up. And so on.No two battles will play the same, and when a favored tactic shows up, it'll be more like your group's version of the X-Men's "Fastball Special" and less like the 3e spiked chain trip monkey.So you can do it, but your combats will almost certainly lose variety.</blockquote>

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