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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 4832081" data-attributes="member: 23935">It sounds like you are forcing a few different beefs with the system into a single complaint.  It may be easier to break the beefs out into their individual components to see if they can be solved independently.As I read your post, I see the following complaints:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Some items are inherently better than others.  In fact, the number of tier-1 items is close to one per category.  This breeds a lot of overlap between player choices.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Character roles have very tight focuses on what constitutes a good job.  This exacerbates the issue of having a tier-1 item.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Flexibility in action in the game is not as valuable as increased specialisation.  A player who is trying to ‘keep up’ with the group and properly fulfil his role will voluntarily restrict his equipment to that which maximises his specialty.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The fact that the game you are playing is a living game (i.e. receiving updates) with a heavy flow of new material is beginning to overwhelm the DM/player capacity to properly absorb/vet the material for campaign use.  This is particularly a problem since the content developers have shown a propensity for imbalanced items.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The auxiliary online tools offered do not offer sufficient capability to track campaign decision and house ruling.  Keeping the tools useful means keeping the campaign options near the official rulings.</li> </ol>As for solutions, some are simpler to solve than others.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Beef up poor items or tone down items that appear overpowered in comparison is a workable solution if the set of items is reasonably static (i.e. the system is dead), but not particularly reasonable when the system is still receiving heavy updates.  The auxiliary toolset offers additional problems with item changes.  The best option appears to be to restrict items from use rather than adjusting the power sets.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This is a design constraint in the game.  There isn’t anything the group can do other than find a game with a different design.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This is heavily linked with #2.  It may be possible for the DM to provide alternative reasons to branch away for a combat specialty, but that is likely to be difficult.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Restrict the flow of new material into the campaign.  Add a 2-3 month dealy between publication to availability to allow errata, problematic use, and other problems to surface.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Stop using the tools?  I thought the game was set up to be simpler and easier to prepare for play.  If that is the case, auxiliary tools are like gilding the lily.  (I don’t play 4e, but that was my impression).</li> </ol></blockquote>

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