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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5207136" data-attributes="member: 3586">You've got a tremendously flawed analogy there. It's worth noting that the Queen's power comes entirely from versatility; the only piece the Queen's movement patterns don't mimic is the Knight's.Where the analogy doesn't particularly work is that chess is a game about battlefield control, not the abilities of single powers. By putting a piece in a particular space, it exerts control around it, limiting the available options for your opponent. The point of this control is to finally limit the actions of the opponent's king down to one: resigning!As such, Chess is a game about using a combination of pieces to win. In a hypothetical battle between a lone Queen and a lone King, there is no winner: the game ends in a stalemate. The Queen needs at least one other piece to win the game with. (This will normally be your King!) The point stands: Chess is a game of combining the powers of pieces.You can see combinations of powers working in 4e; perhaps a simple one comes from the Bodak, which first weakens its opponent, then delivers the death stare to an opponent who is weakened. The death stare doesn't work without first the weakened condition coming into play. However, 4e is not a game about single characters employing powers: it's about multiple characters employing powers and using them together to maximum effect.Two bodaks are far scarier than one, for instance. The first bodak runs up and weakens the fighter, then in the next action the second bodak uses its Death Gaze and the fighter drops.Consider a fighter who drops an opponent prone, then the rogue who uses the combat advantage gained to sneak attack... without needing to flank the opponent (and make himself vulnerable).Why is one power conditionally better than another rather than all the time? Because it depends on what can come next!Cheers!</blockquote>

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