Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="B.T." data-source="post: 6057111" data-attributes="member: 84465">The issue is not optimizing.&nbsp; There is a certain amount of baseline optimization assumed by the system.&nbsp; The fighter is going to buy up his Strength score, use a +2 sword over a +1 sword, and he's going to get into melee combat and stab things.&nbsp; There's nothing wrong with that because if you fail to do that, the game falls apart.&nbsp;The issue is min/maxing (which, in my lexicon, translates to &quot;optimizing without regard to roleplaying&quot;).&nbsp; This is not the same as optimizing well, but the best optimizers often do optimize without regard to roleplaying.&nbsp; The wizard is going to take Quicken Spell and the druid is going to take Natural Spell, and both of those are powerful choices, but they aren't min/maxing.&nbsp; Min/maxing is when you have someone playing an ur-priest / sublime chord to get 9th-level arcane and divine spells.&nbsp; Min/maxing is when someone gets early entry into the mystic theurge.&nbsp; Min/maxing is when someone tries to play an Ubercharger.&nbsp;The reason that optimizers get a lot of negativity is that min/maxers are considered optimizers, and the entire WotC forum devoted to character optimization was a canker sore on the hobby.&nbsp; The prevailing attitudes therein reinforced the idea that D&amp;D was a numbers game.&nbsp; (When one of your core optimization conceits involve clerics taping nightsticks to themselves, you may have a problem.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="B.T., post: 6057111, member: 84465"] The issue is not optimizing. There is a certain amount of baseline optimization assumed by the system. The fighter is going to buy up his Strength score, use a +2 sword over a +1 sword, and he's going to get into melee combat and stab things. There's nothing wrong with that because if you fail to do that, the game falls apart. The issue is min/maxing (which, in my lexicon, translates to "optimizing without regard to roleplaying"). This is not the same as optimizing [i]well[/i], but the best optimizers often do optimize without regard to roleplaying. The wizard is going to take Quicken Spell and the druid is going to take Natural Spell, and both of those are powerful choices, but they aren't min/maxing. Min/maxing is when you have someone playing an ur-priest / sublime chord to get 9th-level arcane and divine spells. Min/maxing is when someone gets early entry into the mystic theurge. Min/maxing is when someone tries to play an Ubercharger. The reason that optimizers get a lot of negativity is that min/maxers are considered optimizers, and the entire WotC forum devoted to character optimization was a canker sore on the hobby. The prevailing attitudes therein reinforced the idea that D&D was a numbers game. (When one of your core optimization conceits involve clerics taping nightsticks to themselves, you may have a problem.) [/QUOTE]

Verification