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<blockquote data-quote="epithet" data-source="post: 7057970" data-attributes="member: 6796566">I've noticed a couple of real limiting factors of min-maxing and over-optimization in actual play. First, you have people who are designing characters who are super prepared for one specific fight. It might be that the player had a problem with a fight like that on a previous character, or that the player imagines that fight scenario will be inevitable, but for whatever reason they are totally focussed on one thing and one thing only. If that scenario doesn't come up, they're now playing a gimped character. A second limiting factor is that when a player focusses that intently on the rules, they sometimes lose sight of the fantasy world their character inhabits. They start to view each encounter as a set of numbers, getting caught up initiative order, hit probabilities, status effects, their character's &quot;rotation&quot; of abilities, etc. Meanwhile, it is often the player with the un-optimised character, who hasn't obsessed about feat synergies etc., that comes up with the hilarious and/or brilliant strategy or tactic that resolves the encounter in a memorable way.Building a character by thinking about who he is, how he got there, and where he wants to go usually, in my experience, leads to a more useful party member than thinking about how, by the time you're level X, you will pretty much always hit anyone without an armor class of Y or higher.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="epithet, post: 7057970, member: 6796566"] I've noticed a couple of real limiting factors of min-maxing and over-optimization in actual play. First, you have people who are designing characters who are super prepared for one specific fight. It might be that the player had a problem with a fight like that on a previous character, or that the player imagines that fight scenario will be inevitable, but for whatever reason they are totally focussed on one thing and one thing only. If that scenario doesn't come up, they're now playing a gimped character. A second limiting factor is that when a player focusses that intently on the rules, they sometimes lose sight of the fantasy world their character inhabits. They start to view each encounter as a set of numbers, getting caught up initiative order, hit probabilities, status effects, their character's "rotation" of abilities, etc. Meanwhile, it is often the player with the un-optimised character, who hasn't obsessed about feat synergies etc., that comes up with the hilarious and/or brilliant strategy or tactic that resolves the encounter in a memorable way. Building a character by thinking about who he is, how he got there, and where he wants to go usually, in my experience, leads to a more useful party member than thinking about how, by the time you're level X, you will pretty much always hit anyone without an armor class of Y or higher. [/QUOTE]

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