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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4953746" data-attributes="member: 82106">Yeah, there are certainly some things that might as well be banned or at least nerfed and I think the OP obviously hit on the main ones. As you say its mostly a matter of what choices are viable. Items which are so far above the general level as BC/Reckless/IAoP/BoA are exactly those items. There's no need for a player to even think about wanting any other enchantment in those categories. Its not even that they may degrade game play, its just that a game full of BC fullblade wielding barbarians is BORING. Why even have any other weapon enchantments with those two in the game? Same for arm slots. I'd say Staff of Ruin falls at least very close to being in the same category. The case with implements is a bit more complex since most casters will want to have other ones at least for specific purposes and using an SoR effectively may well require several feats, so it isn't quite so clear-cut. On top of that at least some casters seem to need a decent way to stack on a bit of extra static damage. I'm not sure though that would be true if the other 4 items were out.Grasp of The Grave IMHO is a bit of a different case. Its not that the spell is so devastatingly effective or even in theory better than anything else at level 5. In fact I think its hard to argue its REALLY better than Stinking Cloud hands down. The problem with it is its MINDLESS. There are no downsides to using it at all. It lasts all encounter, doesn't effect allies, and the effects it does have are pretty much universally effective except maybe if the enemy is primarily artillery. Its a stupid people spell that just rewards uncreative play excessively. Its perceived overpoweredness is really mostly based on that. You can just as thoroughly destroy an encounter with other level 5 dailies, but you might actually have to get a bit creative sometimes to do it. GotG on the other hand just always works.Personally though, I hesitate to fling the word "ban" around too heavily. I just maintain strict control of what items are going to show up in the game by not placing ones I don't want around and making it impossible for PCs with Enchant Item to just whip out any old thing simply because it happens to be written up in AV or some other book or its in CB. As for the whole orbizard lockdown thing, banning items ain't going to fix that people. Phrenic Crown is kind of a nice item to use in that build but hardly necessary. You'd have to ban ALL save penalty items just to put guaranteed lockdown out of reach before level 28. The problem is guaranteed lockdown isn't the ONLY issue. Even reducing a solo's saves by 10 points at level 28 is drastically increasing the character's power and it will still be the premiere option since it means an average 4 round lockdown, which might as well be forever. Its a BIT less problematic getting practically guaranteed lockdown vs regular/elite monsters at higher levels, but its still kind of problematic since knocking out one of the DM's soldiers in a single hit is pretty close to being an encounter-breaker in most cases.Frankly I think the entire CONCEPT of the orbizard is bad. It simply shouldn't exist or the mechanics need to be entirely different.</blockquote>

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