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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5488552" data-attributes="member: 59082">I agree with you Dausuul, but this begs the question: How to give lots of options without the feat/power bloat? How to give players the sense that the character they are creating is unique, not just conceptually but in terms of game mechanics and choices?Let's start with the basic possibilities: race and class. Going by the offline version of Character Builder, and not including Essentials options, you have:36 Races x 26 Classes = 936 race-class combinationsNow considering that many of those options are rarely used (kenku?), let's reduce the races to "primary" ones used in the three Player's Handbooks, which gives us:18 races x 26 classes = 468 race-class combinationsThat's quite a lot, but even then you have a lot of races and classes that just aren't used all that often (e.g. dwarf swordmage), so when it comes to frequently, so you really have maybe 1-200 common race-class combinations, still quite a few but not a huge amount.Now if we take your next step and add a theme, you add another factorial - so you have not just 1-200 common combinations, but 1,000+, with a total possible of 10,000+ or more combinations, including the more obscure ones.That sounds like a ton of options but what would end up happening is that there would be common, archetypal combinations that would be frequently used. Think of going into an independent video store with tens of thousands of possibilities. A lot of them are junk, a lot of them just weird, and a lot of them you aren't in the mood for. So you decide to scoot over to the New Release wall and pick out something that you could have gotten at Blockbuster. My point being, in that sort of framework--option A + B + C +D = finished character--you end up with surprising few actually used combinations. What I would like to see is a way to add a unique customization, not just a background or concept, but something that adds to the character, makes them one-of-a-kind (if the player wants them to be).So I would recommend doing away with feats and powers and integrating them somehow into class features, but then adding a new category, something like Aspects or Talents, or the Virtues & Flaws of Ars Magica. It could even be something akin to the Greek concept of hamartia - one's divine talent that is also one's weakness. There might be some that are pre-described, but DMs and players would be encouraged to come up with their own that suited the specific campaign. So now you'd have something like:Race + Class + Theme/Style + Aspect/Talent/Virtue/Flaw/HamartiaI'm just making this up as I go along, but your post(s) inspired me to brainstorm a bit. The bottom line is that I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too: get rid of unnecessary rules bloat like feats and powers, but still have room for unique customization and, at the same time, find a way to bring conceptual background stuff into the rules.</blockquote>

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