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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5460613" data-attributes="member: 2011">It depends on your definition of balance.Here I am. A player who instead of a starting stat of 20 in Wisdom, took a starting stat of 18 in order to have some points left over to bump up Con and Dex a bit so that Fort and Reflex wouldn't totally be in the crapper. I built my PC 2 years ago.Another player comes along, puts a boatload of points into only two ability scores, one of them a 20, has a sudden weak NAD because they have two lousy stats, and suddenly, that PC is just as defensive in that Defense as my PC because of a single feat.If a player has to pay a significant increase in ability score points in order to bump 14 to 15 to 16 to 17 to 18 when designing the PC, it's not very game balancing if someone else can go buy a Defense feat and get some extra bonuses like the Superior Will save before their turn. Granted, the first PC gets a feat too, but the point remains.Personally, things like the additional ability of Superior Will are almost game breaking depending on campaign. The PC walks around partially immune to some of the most significant conditions of the game.There is no threat anymore. The game becomes boring when the challenge isn't there. The game is watered down and becomes just a hit point slug fest.The NPC that could Stun is not much more scary than the ones that cannot because the game designers gave the players a way to quasi-nerf that ability. And, it's not even a magic item that the DM has more control over. It's a feat that forces the DM to look like a dick if he gets rid of it.Note: The same thing happened between 3.5 and 4E. Although Level/Energy draining was a bit of a pain, some of the most MEMORABLE and nailbiting 3E dungeons were ones like barrowmounds where the players were actually tense going from room to room. Actually apprehensive about some wight or ghost or something coming out and laying the draining smackdown on them.4E doesn't have this level of encounter intensity and as more feats and powers come out which minimize the little bit of intensity that some monsters have, it becomes more and more a game of "Enter Encounter, Roll Some Dice, We Win".A PC in one of my PBP games where the PCs were in serious trouble used the power Astral Condemnation and another player posted "Yah, we win!". From one power. Even though the PCs were on the ropes and it looked like a TPK, one power shifted it into a mopup. It really is that bad that some feats and powers and items are encounter resets.Well, I would prefer it if any PC could charge a foe and knock him prone based on maneuver rules instead of power, feat or item specialization.Player: "I want to tackle that guy to the ground."DM: "Sorry, you don't have the right feat or power for that."I have no problem with customization, I have more of a problem with the fact that common everyday things cannot be done by these supposed heroes without the proper customization. I also have a problem when each release of a new book makes the PCs bigger and badder and the players start taking fewer and fewer customizations from earlier sources.To me, this is a marketing gimmick.</blockquote>

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