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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 4982616" data-attributes="member: 51942">I remember that discussion, and back then I was a little less enthusiastic about the stat-raise fix because of the way it messes up prereqs and class balance.  But the situation has changed a little, and I look at prerequisites differently as well.The barbarian is a great example - barbarian agility previously seemed overpowered when combined with full stat raises.  However, meanwhile, wizards has release a feat (in primal power) that allows primal characters to use their Con mod instead - a huge boost.  In fact, now, raising all stats may even shift that particular feat from the absolutely-must-have set to the very-nice-to-have set.So, classes whose primary or secondary stat align with AC or init or Con still have a large advantage in terms of AC, Init or hitpoints+surges, but that advantage no longer grows as much as levels progress.  I think that's fine.  Bonuses to d20 rolls inherently scale with level, since the underlying effect gets stronger.  It doesn't make sense to scale the bonus with level as well - so it doesn't make sense to make stat mods diverge.As for stat prerequisites, the way I see it now, those were mostly a mistake.  They either make little difference, or they make a difference, and in both cases they're not good.  If they make no difference, just scrap them, and when they make a difference, it's worse, and contributes to the chasm of effectiveness between a power-gamed character and a more naturally built character.  An optimizer can usually easily figure out which prereqs to get when.  A pc built on the spur of the moment can't, and will either miss it by a point or two, or decide "hey, let's invest one of my 4/8 stat-raise points here", and that's worse, since now they're playing a stat array that's typically lower than 22-point buy, and they'll start falling further behind on to-hit, damage, and secondary effects.That doesn't mean you can't award characters for focus - you can, but you should do so via prerequisites that represent actual focus (i.e., do you have this feat chain, or at least this number of "arcane" feats, or this race, or this skill, or whatever).  Stat prerequisites more often than not seem arbitrary: some builds manage em easily, others don't have a chance (e.g. weapon mastery feats).  There's no rhyme or reason to it, but you better watch out which build you pick, since these feats matter.  I also noticed that WotC uses far fewer stat prereqs now: Primal power has only two such feats, and one of those is Hide Armor Expertise (which grants Con mod to AC instead of Dex/Int), and the prereq of just Con 15 is probably there to protect the player, rather than anything else.  I don't think the game'll break by removing stat prereqs altogether, but if you're worried, you could raise prereqs by 1 point per tier, which should keep prereqs out of hands of those that haven't invested anything.  There's just so many decent feats to choose from by now, that I don't think a few more options is going to be problematic.</blockquote>

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