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Message: <blockquote data-quote="random user" data-source="post: 1753442" data-attributes="member: 16581">I think that one of the reasons DMs want to make sure things are reasonably balanced, from their perspective, before they go in is because while in an ideal world, what is "overpowered" is commonly understood between the player and DM, in reality one person can feel something is reasonable while another does not.When this is the case, and the character has invested some time / resources into acquiring whatever is causing the imbalance, the player often feels put off because they now have "worthless" things which have been heavily nerfed.By ensuring the DM is ok with the material, the player can then freely choose to pursue something or not knowing they know exactly what they are getting, and that if something doesn't work out the way they think it should, that's the player's own miscalculation.Such things are often impossible to just retroactively change.  For example, if a character wants a certain PrC and the party agrees to spend a couple game sessions finding someone to train that character, and then he uses his special powers, if the player doesn't like the newly-changed PrC which was changed by the DM because he realized it was causing a problem, it's quite hard to square that with the previous experiences.The player may feel miffed because they didn't perceive a problem, and feel that the new changes make whatever he has worthless.  While it's in theory possible to reconsile this in-game with a boost to something else, if the DM doesn't feel that there is a problem, that can be challenging as well.For example, using arbitrary points, let's say that a player takes something that both the DM and player think is worth 100 points.  After playing with it a little, the player continues to think that it's worth 100 points, but the DM thinks it's really worth 200 points... or perhaps more realistically, the DM thinks it's worth 200 points, and the player thinks it's a little too powerful... say 120 points.So the DM changes stuff around so that he thinks it's only worth 100 points.  However, the player didn't think there was a problem, and now thinks his new power is only worth 50 or 60 points.In the DM's mind, everything is fine.  But the player is miffed.  If the DM gives the player something that is worth 40-50 points of some other power to make the player happy, in the DM's mind, the player now has 150ish points... again a problem.  And of course this player (note I didn't say all players) will say, "Well if I knew you were going to halve the power of this ability, of course I wouldn't have taken it."I'm not saying that this problem is impossible to solve -- but it is a hassle.  So it's often more beneficial to stave off any problems by making sure something is clearly specced out and gets buy-in from all parties involved.  And of course even if you do this, that doesn't preclude from this problem happening anyways, but hopefully it will be less common.</blockquote>

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