D&D 5E Too many choices? (Options Paralysis)

[Salthorae]

That has only been an issue for the power gamer in my group as he tries to eek out every last shred of power he can from...whatever it is he’s trying to do.

For the rest of my crew we usually either know what we’re going to do or the story pushes us to something for our characters naturally. shrug

 

[DND_Reborn]

Too many choices? In my opinion, 5e doesn’t have enough. You get one choice of subclass and 0-4 ability score improvement/feat levels depending on how long the campaign goes, and that’s pretty much it. I guess multiclassing kind of opens up more choices, but you still follow the exact same progression as any other member of whatever classes you have. 5e has very, very little that distinguishes one character from any other of the same class.

Multiclassing opens up a lot of choices IMO. Consider about 6 subclasses for each class, with 12 classes, and by the time you are a 6th level character you have well over 2000 possibilities. Add to that all the feats and ASI choices, even if you only get to level 8, that increases the number drastically to somewhere around 1 million. Now, will many of those choices be optimal or even "good" for your character? Definitely not! But they are there if you want the variety.

That has only been an issue for the power gamer in my group as he tries to eek out every last shred of power he can from...whatever it is he’s trying to do.

For the rest of my crew we usually either know what we’re going to do or the story pushes us to something for our characters naturally. shrug

I don't think it is so much the power-gamer in him but that there is so much he wants to do as a player because he never gets to just play!

I don't know. It's interesting how some people think there are a good number of choices and others want even more...

 

[Salthorae]

I don't think it is so much the power-gamer in him but that there is so much he wants to do as a player because he never gets to just play!

I was just speaking for my group.

But if that’s his problem, then you need to let that man play a PC more often!!

 

[Charlaquin]

Multiclassing opens up a lot of choices IMO. Consider about 6 subclasses for each class, with 12 classes, and by the time you are a 6th level character you have well over 2000 possibilities. Add to that all the feats and ASI choices, even if you only get to level 8, that increases the number drastically to somewhere around 1 million. Now, will many of those choices be optimal or even "good" for your character? Definitely not! But they are there if you want the variety.

Again, kind of. But when you take a level in another class, you still get exactly the same feature as any other character of that class does at that level. The sheer number of options may be high, but there is very little room to actually make the character your own. A mile wide and an inch deep, as it were.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I was just speaking for my group.

But if that’s his problem, then you need to let that man play a PC more often!!

LOL That would be nice! The player running CoS needs some time to prep the next stuff he is doing, so we are going back to the other campaign for a while. Another player wants to run something as well, but with both the other games going, and we only play 1-2 times per month, it will be probably 2 years before he runs anything at all. I would even do it myself, but same issue.

I think, if he has time given how rarely we play, I'll suggest he might want to try to find a group he can just play in and not DM for.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Again, kind of. But when you take a level in another class, you still get exactly the same feature as any other character of that class does at that level. The sheer number of options may be high, but there is very little room to actually make the character your own. A mile wide and an inch deep, as it were.

I see your point. I think it goes in line with the point about lots of "options" but how many would be any good for your character? For example, you could take Savage Attacker for your Abjuration Wizard... but how much would it help you???

 

[Jdvn1]

I was just speaking for my group.

But if that’s his problem, then you need to let that man play a PC more often!!

This.

I've definitely run into this: as a GM, I get ideas for characters I will rarely/never have an opportunity to actually play. So when the rare playing opportunity comes up, choosing between the various compiled ideas is tough.

Playing an NPC just isn't the same, y'know?

 

[Ashrym]

Too many choices? In my opinion, 5e doesn’t have enough. You get one choice of subclass and 0-4 ability score improvement/feat levels depending on how long the campaign goes, and that’s pretty much it. I guess multiclassing kind of opens up more choices, but you still follow the exact same progression as any other member of whatever classes you have. 5e has very, very little that distinguishes one character from any other of the same class.

I disagree a bit here.

I think there's some truth in that mechanically, but not necessarily aesthetically, and not for all classes. Cleric domains change spells prepped, armor worn, other domain powers, and the bonus applying to weapons or spells but not both makes for quite a bit of difference from one to the other for example. A valor bard doesn't really play the same as a lore bard, and spells known as a mechanic can make one character significantly different than another of the same class depending on any thematics in those spells known. A hexblade blade pact is quite a bit different from a GOO tome pact warlock.

If I play a STR great weapon master HAM champion with a noble background fighter I find it quite a bit different from an DEX archer sharpshooter prodigy battle master with a spy background. A fighter starts with decision points at 1st level with DEX vs STR, and background, and skill proficiencies, and fighting style. At 3rd level it's a decision point on subclass and some subclasses add additional decision points as well. Battle masters select from from maneuvers at 4 different levels and a tool proficiency (which is one of the minor decisions). Then they also have up to 7 ASI / feat decision points along the way. Adding in a race and there's a fair bit going on even before multiclassing.

There's not a lot of specific customization within the classes if a person is avoiding feats outside of the subclasses but I think there is some variety in what those archetypes can produce.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yeah, there are options galore. That said, I'm never in a position where I don't have a pretty firm idea what I'm doing from level to level. I put a lot of stock into concept when I build a character, and as part of developing that concept I always have a map for where the character is going, whether that's a MC choice, feats, ASI's, spell choices, whatever. It's not written in stone mind you, but I generally have the choices down to a key few and that helps with the decision making load. That's just me though.

 

[Arnwolf666]

I just know I don’t want the pathfinder nightmare again with options. That game is still out there with alot of very good support for people that want alot options. I play d&d because they went really overboard for my tastes. I don’t criticize them. Many like that playstyle, just not what I am looking for. And I think their adventures are better than what d&d does.