my rants aren't hyperbolic
I indeed say last time my friend (one of my best friends, actually), was so not interested in optimization, or the combat mechanics in general, to even spend much time reading the 4e rules, but I can tell you that after two months of playing, it was apparent that his druid, with an 18 in his main stat, was complete garbage. This is NOT a wizard in earlier editions with a 12 INT who can't cast high level spells. My friend was a DM in 1e, 2e, and 3.0, as well as an avid dnd nerd.
My argument isn't so much that 4e is unbalanced from the point of view of optimized vs non optimized characters, but, rather, if I may elaborate my stance a bit, that people who do not care for min-maxing can completely bork their characters, who should DIE. Yes, I mean it. If your character is useless, they need to die. Rather, what ended up happening, is that he didn't contribute anything and the DM kept the encounter levels down. This, in turn, meant that the other 4 players, myself included, who have long clamoured for tougher, deadlier, quicker battles, could not enjoy such things as Fourthcore-style house rules.
After the druid left, the DM, in an effort to reduce 3 hour battles that didn't advance the plot, but enemy HP in half and doubled the damage, whereupon he said, this not only works better, but feels like earlier editions. Then he agreed, if you need such a massive tweak to balance plot/RP time vs combat time, that the system was indeed broken and it was essentially a (bad) combat simulator. You trade off time for...less realism? Many have argued that 4e is gamist instead of simulationist, this is a given. But the game space could have been fixed long ago, by offering classes more out-of-combat utility powers, more uses of skills so that you don't have the DM looking around in vain for tons of rules on how to adjudicate things where there aren't (again, because combat in 4e is the only thing that matters).
I loved the chess-style 4e combat system, optimizing power and feat selection and so on. Another player, who picks flavorful feats (as many in this thread have mentioned), over mechanically superior ones, might as well just pretend like he's playing a hunchback or a 12 int wizard, for all the damage they'll do. The build was supposed to be a striker, but even with an 18 main stat he was next to useless. Is that a good system?
I can tell you this 100% for sure. Had those feat taxes been baked in, he would have enjoyed his character a lot more, and so would we, having his character in the group. The only thing he was good at apparently was rolling insight checks for an NPC who was clearly on our side the whole time and had no inclination to betray us. He clearly was more RP-oriented, but with pages upon pages of powers, the only thing he kept back on were his skills, which in and of themselves are completely dull. You might say you don't want a mechanical impediment to roleplaying by e.g. having a skill for crafting, but in 4e you CANNOT make money from selling mundane commodities to merchants. 10,000 short swords is worth exactly 0gp according to the rules. How can you roleplay along with that? Eventually those of us who see the strings pulling the puppet strings of our characters via these artificial and blatantly gamist limitations on perfectly sane behavior, realize, RPing is removed by the rigidness of the power structure, the lack of non-combat useful powers and skills.
Come on, at level 16 a wizard can fly for 5 minutes outside of combat? Really? That's a level 5 wizard with an int of 13 that can do that in earlier eds. After three years of playing, all we're supposed to do is grind, grind, and more grind.
And the only thing Wizards has to show for all the bickering in the forums about these damn feat disparities between RPers and "RPers+4e enthusiasts who have a clue about the mechanics" is : "well, use another house rule, but not in our character builder".
Why should I hold back my wroth against a game company that treats us with such...contempt? The adult thing to do when you mess up is own up to it, fix what you broke, then move on. They haven't done anything of the sort. I agree 100% with the other posters that these feat slots impede role playing. There are just not enough feats to go around to take fluffy ones. We play the game, we get rewards for levelling up...and our reward? We get to spend it on fixing their broken math to keep up with the rest of the group or otherwise keep the rest of the group from enjoying tougher encounters due to the DM not being able to boost the EL because the guy who didn't pimp out his character can't hit worth a damn.
This has been my 4e experience...it's a pain that wizards waffled so long...but not a surprise to me. Instead of fixing this stuff, the come out with even more schlocky expertise feats that just came out. My arguments are borne out of hundreds of hours of gaming and more reading and tweaking and planning.
Wotc went the route of selling more +1/+2/+3 feats for their Dragon magazine / DP Insider clientele, which is easy money. Shoot me for being cynical, but I don't like paying for the same thing over and over again. This is three years they've been re-selling us these damn feat fixes in various forms, from PHB 2 all the way to now.
Aren't you sick of it? Yes, these feats cost you money. Real money. What kind of sucker lets themselves get fleeced many times over? Me, apparently. But no more. This thread confirms it to me, they have no intention of fixing this edition, but want to milk y'all for every last penny they can, and do it in a completely transparent, obvious, and sleazy way.
Mod Note: see my post below ~Umbran
