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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5306421" data-attributes="member: 78116">This is a good description of what you're doing and the hyperbole you employ in your posts IMO.Considering we knew about themes six months ago and nobody really did, I can say no they wouldn't have been. Also, Half-Elves have been doing this since 4Es release without major drama, so I'm completely failing to see your point to be honest. Not all races even get universally useful encounter powers or similar. <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/5305053-post58.html" target="_blank">Where did I say they weren't</a>? My first post specifically starts out saying "The power increase in heroic is noticeable yes" but I stated that it's not such an incredibly dramatic difference. But again, that it makes early heroic parties more powerful is inherently obvious on numerous levels and not what I disputed. The point of the matter was what effect on the entire game did it have. The answer I found was it made early heroic tier games more fun and less grindy. It also meant you didn't waste your first encounter then "at-will" for the rest of an encounter - the extra option at level 1-3 was a good thing. Funny, I didn't see that at all and I was playing with it. By epic that extra power point isn't significant at all. At heroic that extra power point was very useful and helped a lot - neither was imbalancing in the encounters I used.Yes, but it is limited and not game imbalancing. It's the effect that matters and if it makes the game more fun and doesn't break the game in any manner that is the single most important aspect. Because Themes inherently improve the heroic tier - early heroic tier - considerably from my actual play experience. What actual play experience of themes do you have? I mean, they are available right now for anyone to try. Get one of the Dark Sun adventures, make some characters and try themed vs. unthemed characters. See how it compares and what it does to the game at low heroic - where I stand by the fact they have the biggest effect. Then make some level 30 doods and see how they affect the game (minimally from what I could tell).I'll bet you the extra encounter rapidly loses its significance as you level up, while making early heroic tier battles more fun, varied and even reducing grindyness of hard low level encounters. All without all of a sudden magically trivializing encounters.You can do this, but it's not required and these themes are not breaking anything about 4Es assumptions or similar. It works well, especially when it has the most impact and doesn't break the game at later levels. Also, way to absolutely bone races with encounter powers. So you get 3 encounter powers and then have to choose between a pretty weak racial and (for example) Come and Get It? I can't say I like your idea here very much.Your posts sure don't give me that impression to be frank. When they add multiple things on and we get PCs getting 5+ encounters at level 1 from various free things then we have a problem. Themes do not add a problem and are a balanced, interesting addition to the game. Especially when they add more of them so there is a better selection.Edit: I have this core problem with your arguments as Power Creep is a term most commonly used for deriding poorly executed additions to a game that over time "break it". There is always natural power creep in the life of any RPG, this is a part of the hobby and why having a living DM is often very handy. The point here though is that while themes increase power it's not an out of line increase with the rest of the game. Additionally they are extremely well executed for what they are - so they are not something wizards has simply thrown into the game with no care, thought or attention. The powers are good, but not so exceptional that if you don't have them you're absolutely boned. Yes, at level 1 you're going to feel your themeless characters lack of power compared to someone with a theme. By level 10? 20? 30? The theme is not a major increase anymore and the power gap narrows massively between unthemed and themed characters - which is what I noticed when doing my own little "playtests".Now I keep stating this over and over, but by themselves Themes are an excellent addition to 4E. When they have the most effect they are at their best, by epic they are another option and are not majorly increasing power (over the whole game). Assuming Wizards isn't incompetent and adds more options on top of themes, the "power creep" will be minimal. To be honest, I actually feel themes would have been a solid mechanic to have from the very start of 4E to begin with. They fix issues I've had with early heroic 4E for a long time now and disappear over time in their impact to the game.Ultimately that's the point to me: A boost in early heroic where it is warranted and then not changing the game for the worse at epic tier where we don't need a major power increase.</blockquote>

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