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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Akunin" data-source="post: 92947" data-attributes="member: 15">Re: uh, AkuninAh!  And here I was wondering what I've been doing all this time. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Your most recent posts regarding balance don't make this clear to me, though.I took this to be "balance" in the overarcing sense, since you don't specify what is being balanced, and the word was only used a few times prior to this.   We know that there are going to be quantifiable rules for statting out deities, and that they have game mechanic statistics.  I only hope that the rules provide information or advice for using deities who cannot be described with a stat block (I always preferred the Planescape boxed set rules for handling interactions between PCs and the gods, rather than the various other first and second edition rules)./me shudders to think of the campaigns that will spring up where gods are treated as just more Monster Manual critters to kill and loot.I'd actually prefer that they give us stats for Avatars of the gods (as they did in previous books) and then a run-down of the various "domains" or "portfolios" of the divinities, and a rough approximation of what they can do within their realm of influence.Agreed.  Not that I *like* the idea of statting out the gods, and I'll probably just use the stats as qualitative descriptions of the deities' relative power.  At the least, we should have a good idea of the power levels for Avatars, which is what the PCs are more likely to encounter.Unfortunately, it appears that there is more deviation from the attempted balance of the Core Rules as more rule books are released.  We're seeing an escalation of the more powerful Feats and Prestige Classes that require sacrificing little to gain a great many abilities.   The Core Rules had many "weak" Feats, but often those served as prerequisites for the "better' Feats.  Now, we see the same "weak" Feats, but they are less desirable, because they are not a part of useful Feat chains, whereas several powerful Feats have been grafted onto existing chains or are stand-alone abilities, making them easier to acquire.I think they *value* balance, but balance doesn't sell books, whereas "kewel powerz" do.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />Epic Level Rules, by comparison to the level 1-20 materials, allow for a huge escalation of power, but from what I've seen, it's not really a game-breaker - the challenges to a party of 30th-level characters are higher, the enemies have more powerful equipment, and the power levels scale nicely.  But take the jump to divine-powered characters, and any idea of "balance" should really be thrown out the window.  Providing a framework for building gods is just fine, and I am totally in agreement with that approach, but I don't think there needs to be an attempt to reconcile the power levels with normal or epic play.  There's just too big a gap between the mortal and the divine.</blockquote>

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