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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrowhawk" data-source="post: 5651970" data-attributes="member: 6679551">I read JKaron's schpiel about the Tiers. Apart from things like Factotoms and their ability to take extra actions, most of the Tier rankings are based on spell casting.   There are some major problems with what JKaron presents and on many levels it amounts to disinformation.  First off, let me state right up front I'm not trying to say that Monks are overpowered.  I'll also state that under the assumptions made by JKaron, I'm sure his ranking is accurate enough.  But the invalidty of what he suggests is a result of the invalidity of his assumptions...the chief being that every spell is accessible to everyone who can cast it.  In essence, under Jkaron's logic, one could argue that one of the most dangerous weapons in the U.S. is the semi.  Why?  Because you can pack it full of more nuclear weapons than a fighter plane and drive it 100 MPH right through the fences at the White House and wipe out all of Washington DC.   That's right...it could conceivably happen.  If it did happen, it would change the very fabric of the trucking industry and motor transportation.  This is essentially the argument that JKaron makes with Wizards.   They could do all this crazy stuff if there was no such thing as (game) reality getting in the way. If Wizards were routinely able to access all the spells in every splat book, the very lore of D&D would be vastly different, not to mention the day to day live of every individual.  If Wizards could so easily create Obdurium aniamtes that were impervioius to damage, or never ending wealth, or constantly use Contadt Other Plane to learn any thing they needed to know...Wizards would control everything.  No non-Wizard could ever be lied to or deceived.  Wizards would have armies of nearly invincible soldiers and martial types would never ever be employed to wage war.  There'd be no point. The same could be said about Clerics.  So obviously D&D anticipates some mechanic controls the availability and accessibility of high levle magic.  I would wager that mechanic is called the "DM". I don't think anyone bats an eye at the idea that a DM should control the proliferation and availablity of magic items.   But somehow spells are different?  Grant it, the rules seem kind of sketchy on denying spells to Sorcs/Bards and non-arcane casters, but I'll wager there is a non-house rule mechanics which allows it. The bottom line is I think this notion of Tier ranking the classes to be informative only in the sense it tells you that Spell/Magic are the source of gamebreaking power and that controlling the accessibility of such things is the key to balance the classes.     Feats could be just as bad, but WotC authors haven't gone hog wild on Feats like they have with spells.   I think the reason is pretty straightforward as Feats are predominately non-maigical or of limited magic in origin.   A spell is "magic" so you can make up anything you want and thus create unwieldy options for the game.</blockquote>

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