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<blockquote data-quote="gribble" data-source="post: 4706428" data-attributes="member: 12430">Hmmm, somone said something upthread which got me thinking. I think I might see where WotC are going with this. If we look at the common ability score distributions together with the perceived problems in higher level play, generally they fall into 2 camps: the specialists (18+ in primary ability with weak scores elsewhere), and the generalists (all ability scores &quot;balanced&quot;).The specialists are able to reliably hit higher level opponents, but have a weakness in NADs. The generalists have acceptable NADs, but usually miss high level opponents a lot more.Looking at the new feats, it seems that expertise is intended to be taken by generalists to &quot;fix&quot; the missing problem, and the new improved defense feats are intended to be taken by specialists to &quot;fix&quot; the low NADs problem.Unfortunately, the implementation is flawed, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there's nothing to stop specialists taking expertise or generalists from taking the NAD boosting feats, so it doesn't really fix the problem (or creates a new problem in that optimised characters will be too powerful for the opponents they're supposed to be facing). Secondly, the feats alone are just &quot;too good&quot;, compared to other options available. I can't see any character (which isn't intentionally or unwittingly gimping themselves) not taking expertise by 15th level, and also think most characters will find a feat slot for the epic NAD booster (given that a lot of characters already take one of the paragon single NAD boosting feats, it'd be a no-brainer to retrain that for the new and improved epic one). That aside, they all but invalidate a lot of other feats (Combat Reflexes, Nimble Blade, etc), which IMO is terrible design.Put me in the MW weapons/implements camp. I think that would have been a much better &quot;fix&quot; for any perceived problems.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="gribble, post: 4706428, member: 12430"] Hmmm, somone said something upthread which got me thinking. I think I might see where WotC are going with this. If we look at the common ability score distributions together with the perceived problems in higher level play, generally they fall into 2 camps: the specialists (18+ in primary ability with weak scores elsewhere), and the generalists (all ability scores "balanced"). The specialists are able to reliably hit higher level opponents, but have a weakness in NADs. The generalists have acceptable NADs, but usually miss high level opponents a lot more. Looking at the new feats, it seems that expertise is intended to be taken by generalists to "fix" the missing problem, and the new improved defense feats are intended to be taken by specialists to "fix" the low NADs problem. Unfortunately, the implementation is flawed, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there's nothing to stop specialists taking expertise or generalists from taking the NAD boosting feats, so it doesn't really fix the problem (or creates a new problem in that optimised characters will be too powerful for the opponents they're supposed to be facing). Secondly, the feats alone are just "too good", compared to other options available. I can't see any character (which isn't intentionally or unwittingly gimping themselves) not taking expertise by 15th level, and also think most characters will find a feat slot for the epic NAD booster (given that a lot of characters already take one of the paragon single NAD boosting feats, it'd be a no-brainer to retrain that for the new and improved epic one). That aside, they all but invalidate a lot of other feats (Combat Reflexes, Nimble Blade, etc), which IMO is terrible design. Put me in the MW weapons/implements camp. I think that would have been a much better "fix" for any perceived problems. [/QUOTE]

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