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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3083617" data-attributes="member: 22882">First of all, 'encouraging' and 'increasing' are essentially the same thing, provided you're talking about groups of people and not individuals.  'Guaranteeing' is in no way the same thing as either 'encouraging' or 'increasing.'  By contrast, 'increasing in an absolute sense' is pretty much true of anything that is 'encouraged,' provided you use a large enough sample size.  If you 'encourage' something, you will 'increase' it if you 'encourage' enough people because there will invevitably be those who respond to the 'encouragement.'Second, what does planning a character have to do with powergaming?  You can play a character who will suck horribly at every level, or a character who will be really powerful at every level.  You can advance a character impulsively who will suck horribly (and this will often happen with certain classes, especially fighter), and you can advance a character impulsively who will be on par with a planned character (provided the impulsively advanced character is a divine spellcaster).Planning or not planning is a playstyle issue that largely boils down to whether one's expectations are primarily derived from the D&D of yore (or D&D taught by players whose expectations derive from same) or from almost any other game (pen and paper or electronic), book or other media.So in addition to completely basing the power level of the PCs on randomness, you also allow them to (largely randomly) nerf themselves forever in yet another way!  I'm sure there's enjoyment to be gotten from this, just as I'm sure there's enjoyment to be gotten from 'grinding' in a MMORPG; what, exactly that enjoyment is, remains a mystery. :\</blockquote>

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