Book Planning...
After reading a lot of the posts both for and against wizards, it is apparent that know matter what Wotc does they will be second guessed (as someone pointed out in a message further back). As original poster on this thread I still hold true to the belief that power creep exists in most of the books that come out. Granted, it is not as bad as the previous editions IMO but it does exist. Splatbooks really change what the core class is allowed to do and how they operate. One of the biggest 'breakers' in my mind are spells. Spells like murderous mist for druids are far more potent and versatile than what druids have access to in the core books. There are many spells that do the same for clerics. The roles of spellcasters seem to be mixed. There are even spells that a wizard/sorceror can cast that give healing now and that doesn't make any sense at all to me. Spells are poorly written and lead to a lot of confusion and the authors don't take into account for mixed classes IMO. How does this spell work if a wizard/rogue uses it? Does it become broken? Is it too powerful for the level that I have put it on? Feats and PrC can do the same but not on as large a scale IMO.
Having said that, it is my belief that the books could be improved if Wotc were to change the designs of the books (and by no means am I advocating only crunch in a book like this). Instead of focusing on classes and races why not focus on the mechanics of the game. They are much more modular and it would be easier to add them to the game as one author writes the mechanic than can affect all the classes equally rather than focusing on a class or race that the next auther feels he must meet or exceed to make his book worth buying. In case I have lost you here is an example...One author writes a book on feats. He considers all classes and designs feats for the classes. He is free to design new categories of feats (ala weapon style, divine and wildshape to name a few). Since he is now giving new feat options for one class he can think about how those feats would affect other classes and can design feats that oppose that or at the very least give the same bonus in terms of power level for the other classes when he designs said feat. The same principle can be applied to spells. One author, one design view and spellcasters will benefit equally. This can be extrapolated into a book on skills, PrC, alternate subraces and so on. Once the end is reached, about 2 years later or so they could start over again much like MM2 and MM3 just continue to add monsters but don't replace the original book. Consumers can easily buy a book to add to one part of their game but not another and it would not affect balance or consistency whatsoever...
Having said that I do think other supplement books like Frostburn and Maelstrom could still be produced the way they are (but even these suffer from the afore mentioned power creep). What do you think of a product like this?
After reading a lot of the posts both for and against wizards, it is apparent that know matter what Wotc does they will be second guessed (as someone pointed out in a message further back). As original poster on this thread I still hold true to the belief that power creep exists in most of the books that come out. Granted, it is not as bad as the previous editions IMO but it does exist. Splatbooks really change what the core class is allowed to do and how they operate. One of the biggest 'breakers' in my mind are spells. Spells like murderous mist for druids are far more potent and versatile than what druids have access to in the core books. There are many spells that do the same for clerics. The roles of spellcasters seem to be mixed. There are even spells that a wizard/sorceror can cast that give healing now and that doesn't make any sense at all to me. Spells are poorly written and lead to a lot of confusion and the authors don't take into account for mixed classes IMO. How does this spell work if a wizard/rogue uses it? Does it become broken? Is it too powerful for the level that I have put it on? Feats and PrC can do the same but not on as large a scale IMO.
Having said that, it is my belief that the books could be improved if Wotc were to change the designs of the books (and by no means am I advocating only crunch in a book like this). Instead of focusing on classes and races why not focus on the mechanics of the game. They are much more modular and it would be easier to add them to the game as one author writes the mechanic than can affect all the classes equally rather than focusing on a class or race that the next auther feels he must meet or exceed to make his book worth buying. In case I have lost you here is an example...One author writes a book on feats. He considers all classes and designs feats for the classes. He is free to design new categories of feats (ala weapon style, divine and wildshape to name a few). Since he is now giving new feat options for one class he can think about how those feats would affect other classes and can design feats that oppose that or at the very least give the same bonus in terms of power level for the other classes when he designs said feat. The same principle can be applied to spells. One author, one design view and spellcasters will benefit equally. This can be extrapolated into a book on skills, PrC, alternate subraces and so on. Once the end is reached, about 2 years later or so they could start over again much like MM2 and MM3 just continue to add monsters but don't replace the original book. Consumers can easily buy a book to add to one part of their game but not another and it would not affect balance or consistency whatsoever...
Having said that I do think other supplement books like Frostburn and Maelstrom could still be produced the way they are (but even these suffer from the afore mentioned power creep). What do you think of a product like this?
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