Good article, but not entirely complete, in my opinion. You do, of course, know what the power level be in the normal game, so you don't have to aim past that.
However, saying that you're entirely unaware of what other players will be doing in PbP is inaccurate. Unless the DM specifically states something like World of L_Tiene does, those most likely to be accepted are those with the most RP experience, and typically DnD RP experience goes hand in hand with building experience. Therefore, you know that you're quite liable going to be playing with veteran players.
Secondly, you know everyone
else is likely to think exactly as Roy described. Add two and two and notice that you're looking at a game where veteran players are building with the power level to drag their entire party through a Gygaxian adventure on their own.
The DM will be aiming at that power level. Therefore, the last reason to optimize in PbP is, everyone
else will be doing it and you don't want to be a Monk among Gods.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wippit Guud
From a DM's view... I actually think the limiting factor is time.
When you're running a tabletop game, everyone gets together to make their characters, probably in a couple of hours at most. That done, the DM begins the adventure, and since everyone only took an hour or so to figure things out, there's no sudden, "oh crap, how do I counter was this cleric just pulled out of his divine ass?" popping up.
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Not necessarily. In our tabletop games, typically, the DMs sends around an e-mail with the basic premise, and then everyone has a week or two to prepare their characters. Monks and TWF Rangers (without the implied Lion Totem Barbarian level) are still common.
Quote:
Originally Posted by snakeman830
My experience has been that the mechanics actually help the roleplaying. It's one thing to say that your character is a legendary swordsman, but when the average wolf can kill him with ease, the roleplaying falls flat (and usually ends, since the character is dead).
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So, what when you play a character without 'legendary', 'undefeated', 'perfect', or 'child phenomenon' in their core description? Do you also build to reflect
low power levels when your character story requires that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roy
You get to play AwesomeMan the Awesome adventures, instead of AverageMan the Average adventures, and most certainly are not stuck on rat farming duty. Because see, the better you are, the better your opponents are, which means the more impressive and epic it is when you beat them. Conversely, the punishment for making terrible characters is going on terrible adventures, because it's all they can handle.
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Experimental data points to the opposite. Is slaying the avatar of a deity after defeating its demonic hordes an epic achievement? You betcha.
We did this with a party in the bottom mid-levels, with not a single bit of magic between all of the characters, not even so much as magic items, and builds that a Fighter built by a second-time player with a limited book collection would have a fair chance against.