Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 5061574" data-attributes="member: 710">Yes. I absolutely wouldn't describe the concept as a design flaw, more like a design &quot;genius&quot; - since it allows you to keep monster statistics simple but give the players a lot of opportunity to tweak stuff and set different focuses.The flaw might be more in the detail. The Expertise feats - are they required, are they optional, it doesn't matter. They change the math between PHB 1 and PHB 2. I would not be surprised if they considered 3 points a marginal difference to not bother, nor would I be surprised if they always planned for the feat but wanted to have them in PHB 2. (Just like Adventurer's Vault added missing masterwork armor.). (at least in the latter case, we can be reasonably certain the math is working as intended now.)Another detail is how the &quot;bad&quot; defenses improve over level. They don't keep up their pace, so if you started weak, you end even weaker compared to threats on your level. And finally as a third aspect - it seems skills were a little neglected in &quot;the math&quot;. Magic Items, racial bonuses, feats, and ability increases can create a wide gap. (Of course, still nothing compared to having or not having a +10 bonus from a magical item on Disable Device or not.). But, at least the bonuses to skills from magical items improve at the same pace as Defense and Attack bonuses.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 5061574, member: 710"] Yes. I absolutely wouldn't describe the concept as a design flaw, more like a design "genius" - since it allows you to keep monster statistics simple but give the players a lot of opportunity to tweak stuff and set different focuses. The flaw might be more in the detail. The Expertise feats - are they required, are they optional, it doesn't matter. They change the math between PHB 1 and PHB 2. I would not be surprised if they considered 3 points a marginal difference to not bother, nor would I be surprised if they always planned for the feat but wanted to have them in PHB 2. (Just like Adventurer's Vault added missing masterwork armor.). (at least in the latter case, we can be reasonably certain the math is working as intended [I]now[/I].) Another detail is how the "bad" defenses improve over level. They don't keep up their pace, so if you started weak, you end even weaker compared to threats on your level. And finally as a third aspect - it seems skills were a little neglected in "the math". Magic Items, racial bonuses, feats, and ability increases can create a wide gap. (Of course, still nothing compared to having or not having a +10 bonus from a magical item on Disable Device or not.). But, at least the bonuses to skills from magical items improve at the same pace as Defense and Attack bonuses. [/QUOTE]

Verification