How powerful is Crimson Edge?

[boolean]

It seems to me that adding a new encounter power EVERY odd level would just reintroduce this problem. By level 30 you'd have 16 encounter powers, which is just silly. But then again, I have no idea how (or if) they'd go about preventing this, since you certainly want something new and shiny every level.

I suspect that a character has a limited number of powers known, but they can swap when they gain a level. So, a character leveling from 8th to 9th might not increase the number of powers they know, but their 9th level power may replace a power they took back at 5th, or whenever.

So, they have a more powerful option, but the total number of options available hasn't increased.

This is all just speculation at this point, of course.

 

[Jhaelen]

I suspect that a character has a limited number of powers known, but they can swap when they gain a level. So, a character leveling from 8th to 9th might not increase the number of powers they know, but their 9th level power may replace a power they took back at 5th, or whenever.

So, they have a more powerful option, but the total number of options available hasn't increased.

This is all just speculation at this point, of course.

I'd be surprised if they don't use the approach Bo9S took: You have to select a smallish number of encounter powers in advance from the somewhat-larger number of encounter powers known. Switching the selected 'prepared' encounter powers is possible but takes some time.

So while your overall options increase with your level, the number of options during an encounter stays pretty static or increases minimally so the complexity doesn't increase too much.

 

[Nytmare]

It seems to me that adding a new encounter power EVERY odd level would just reintroduce this problem. By level 30 you'd have 16 encounter powers, which is just silly. But then again, I have no idea how (or if) they'd go about preventing this, since you certainly want something new and shiny every level.

What if those 16 encounter powers were described by 3 or 4 trees though instead of individual abiliities? So you'd have 4 basic abilities that were all being pumped up and modified by the others.

I fireball things -> I hit more things with my fireball -> I do more damage with my fireball -> Things stay lit on fire when I hit them with my fireball.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I'd be surprised if they don't use the approach Bo9S took: You have to select a smallish number of encounter powers in advance from the somewhat-larger number of encounter powers known. Switching the selected 'prepared' encounter powers is possible but takes some time.

So while your overall options increase with your level, the number of options during an encounter stays pretty static or increases minimally so the complexity doesn't increase too much.

Sounds like a 3E Cleric or Wizard. One of the drawbacks of playing those classes is everyone starts getting irritated as the Cleric or Wizard hold up the game while they are selecting what spells (powers) to use. I can't count the number of times one of our games has been held up for 5 to 10 (even 20) minutes while spells are being selected. I would be even more concerned if this delay would then be based on 6 people doing this instead of 2. As it stands the players who don't mind doing this are the ones playing Clerics and Wizards while the players who know they suck at this and don't like doing this are playing fighters so they don't have to spend time figuring out what they have available for the next day or encounter.

 

[Dragonblade]

I'd be surprised if they don't use the approach Bo9S took: You have to select a smallish number of encounter powers in advance from the somewhat-larger number of encounter powers known. Switching the selected 'prepared' encounter powers is possible but takes some time.

I hope not. I hope all powers are always available (provided they haven't used it already for per encounter and per day powers).