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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5347688" data-attributes="member: 22424">Suboptimal isn't a problem. Badly suboptimal is.If you put a newbie in with a bunch of experienced players and he's hit for effectiveness by having less understanding of the rules and by having a character who is significantly inferior to the rest, then that double whammy makes it much more likely that you'll soon have one more ex-player to add to the statistics.The range of options goes well beyond simply power choices. We now have themes, backgrounds, races, classes, powers, skills, feats, equipment... At each step we have dozens of options, each with their own little rules, prerequisites, exceptions and consequences. We have the complexities of a point-buy system for attributes, where again it is not at all clear that you should focus very heavily on one (or maybe two) stat(s) and where the choice of 'ideal' stat depends very much on other choices.I've been playing for 20+ years, and I find the range of options overwhelming. I have to come to it with a clear idea of the character I want to build before I start, or I have no chance. (And as for playing without the Character Builder, forget it. I simply will not do it.)If the tool is limited to the PHB1 options only, then it absolutely is manageable. If you force the new player to accept that the Quick Character (without tweaking) is &quot;good enough&quot;, then it is manageable. But to expect a new player to make head or tail of the full range of options allowed by that tool is absurd.(And it's actually a good thing that the game has a 'base' set of options, represented by the PHB1, and a 'full' set of options for use by more advanced players - it allows for easier entry and then more complexity as you go. But they probably should have an &quot;easy mode&quot; button front and centre on the Character Builder to get it to default to the PHB1 options only with one click.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="delericho, post: 5347688, member: 22424"] Suboptimal isn't a problem. [i]Badly[/i] suboptimal is. If you put a newbie in with a bunch of experienced players and he's hit for effectiveness by having less understanding of the rules [i]and[/i] by having a character who is significantly inferior to the rest, then that double whammy makes it much more likely that you'll soon have one more ex-player to add to the statistics. The range of options goes well beyond simply power choices. We now have themes, backgrounds, races, classes, powers, skills, feats, equipment... At each step we have dozens of options, each with their own little rules, prerequisites, exceptions and consequences. We have the complexities of a point-buy system for attributes, where again it is not at all clear that you should focus very heavily on one (or maybe two) stat(s) and where the choice of 'ideal' stat depends very much on other choices. I've been playing for 20+ years, and [i]I[/i] find the range of options overwhelming. I have to come to it with a clear idea of the character I want to build before I start, or I have no chance. (And as for playing without the Character Builder, forget it. I simply will not do it.) If the tool is limited to the PHB1 options only, then it absolutely is manageable. If you force the new player to accept that the Quick Character (without tweaking) is "good enough", then it is manageable. But to expect a new player to make head or tail of the full range of options allowed by that tool is absurd. (And it's actually a [i]good[/i] thing that the game has a 'base' set of options, represented by the PHB1, and a 'full' set of options for use by more advanced players - it allows for easier entry and then more complexity as you go. But they probably should have an "easy mode" button front and centre on the Character Builder to get it to default to the PHB1 options only with one click.) [/QUOTE]

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