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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6858447" data-attributes="member: 37579">My attitude towards power gaming you mean? Or the response? Video games are largely a solo activity. And even when played in a group (such as an MMO) the effectiveness of one person over another is harder to see. You're focusing on your own UI and playing. The best comparison would be something like a Diablo style game, with one character devastating all the enemies before another can even trigger more than a power or two. When it feels like you're a tag along character, or being power leveled when you're the same level.See above. The group are meant to be partners, not sidekicks. A power disparity means 3/4 of the table is second fiddle to the optimizer. They're Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl to the one character's Batman. A party should be more like Batman and the Justice League or Robin and the Teen Titans, where there's more equality. Also, the fact you think of being good optimizing as being "good at the game" is  telling, since combat is only part of the game. It skews the emphasis. And focusing on that can take away the focus on exploration and role-playing; if you're character is a combat god, you want to show off your divinity and will look for opportunities to pick fights. And knowing the system really well pushes you to roll instead of role in both exploration and RP encounters. Or heaven forbid you have a player optimize the Diplomacy skill in 3e/Pathfinder.... *shudder* The issue is their fun is coming at the expense of my fun. As a DM I want to play too. I want my monsters to do their cool thing. I get enjoyment out of seeing the party challenged, by my scary Big Bad being a dramatic villain and a real threat. When the one optimizer comes along and crushes my monster or bad guy before it can even get into position, that means I didn't get to play. When the villain gets stunlocked and the mob of enemies grappled then beaten on, as the DM I'm bored while the players are shooting fish in a barrel.It's fun to let the players devastate an encounter once in a while. When my players are having a blast I'm generally having a blast. But when it's focused on one player and it's every time it gets repetitive. That also forces the DM to cheat. They want their monster to act, so it's hit points go up. Or it's a couple levels higher without an increase in xp. Or it somehow gets a surprise round. Or the DM optimizes themself (which is generally easier in Pathfinder, where the player's toolbox can be used by the DM). Or they target that one player's weakness, and it feels like the DM is singling them out and being unfair (which they technically are).</blockquote>

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