Do you think Paragons are good for the game?

Per the title...

  • Yes - Minor tweaks at best

  • Yes - Needs major tweaks

  • No - We don't need them

  • No - We need capstones, but different

  • Indifferent


Results are only viewable after voting.
I absolutely think paragons are good for the game...they need some tweaks/balances, but this is the direction the game should be going in.

Right now, only casters have mid/late level abilities that are really cool/fun/different with ritual casting and high magic. Rogues and fighters have a whole lot of nothing...maybe more damage or more dodges, but that's nothing compared ot being able to cast a ritual or use high magic.

Not only that, but paragons add something that the game needs more of: Flavor. With paragons, two level 20 fighters could be completely different. They are basically prestige classes from D&D...and while those classes may not be the 100% optimal choice, they add a whole heck of a lot of flavor to the game. And that, in my mind at least, is more fun/exciting.

Now that paragons have been revealed? I don't think I'd be happy with them NOT being in the game. Even if you gave fighters and rogues some capstone ability...it's not enough. Paragons are likely my most favorite change of 2.0, just because of the amount of flavor it will add to each character and class.
 
My biggest issue with paragons is they are too much, too big and basically impossible to balance. They also give pcs npc abilities such as carrier attacks, arcane, elemental effects and so on. Making scaling for plot and staff that much harder.

I would much rather see simpler yet interesting capstones such as high magic is now. Give melee something like that, add a few more effects into current high magic and that would be fine without effecting the game in a major way.
 
From the simple standpoint that the Paragon "package" was released with at least one excluded, and several receiving active ARC updates the week(s) following the release, its impossible to compare these to a completed system. They're wildly powerful or incredibly mediocre, for a rather sizable investment regardless.

There appears to have been little-to-no thought as to how to release it/them into system/game setting, further bringing into question if there's more interest in having "something" rather than is the "something correct and balanced.

A lot of the issues captured within just reading through them is the embodiment of what at least a couple owners on the 2.0 boards have identified as problematic to their games and perception of system, as well.

Does Alliance need something for 'top end' play or investment? Certainly, though it could easily be argued that magic has High Magic and Ritual Casting to do so.

Are Paragons what's needed? Again, as proposed no, as they were released far too early.
 
I believe that there are too many paragon paths, they are too complicated, they are completely unbalanced, and absolutely necessary for characters who meet the pre-requisites, at least for everyone but pure scholars. It is absolutely impossible for us to properly play test all of the paths with the current resources available to us.

I think the theory behind them is good, but right now they just create more haves vs have nots. Low level characters will continue to fall behind as high level characters gain access to powers shut off from the lower level player base that are far better than most of their base class skills.

I agree that there needs to be options for high level advancement to add flavor and specialization so that all characters don't end up looking the same. I don't think the paths as currently constructed do that; they just add a huge added layer of complexity to a rules change that was supposed to simplify the game and make it more accessible to new players.
 
For transparency I voted yes - with major tweaks.

I think that Paragon Paths are a major step in the right direction for game balance. At the moment there are simply too many to reasonably deal with but could reasonably be slimmed down to something more manageable though I don't know what that would be nor do I want to be the one to make that decision.

I'd like to echo earlier sentiments about paragon paths enabling interesting cap abilities for fighters and rogues beyond "do more damage and kill stuff gooder".

I also support them especially considering the loss of some of the more insane magic items for the higher tiers of play. I think bringing something into the game that still gives players universal wonky cool ultra powers is good when it is tied directly to ones build instead of being in addition to everything that they do.

Do Paragon Paths do everything perfectly? Absolutely not. Are they a step in the right direction? In my opinion, yes.
 
A very emphatic no, on my part.

These are an unnecessary complication to what was looking to be a much more streamlined system, and appear to exist solely to let back in mechanics which were set to be eliminated for the benefit of high build characters whose players may feel the need to have something to entertain them after hitting the effective endgame mechanically.

The solution to keeping the system interesting is to work on making the system scale, not tacking on more exceptions to the system before it even reaches 1.0.

The variety of powers involved that are effectively rules exceptions mean that these abilities are unlikely to ever be able to be effectively balanced at release. Given how resistant to rules updates the system as designed is, we should be deeply leery of putting in things that we know in advance will need to be tweaked later, because applying those tweaks can be nearly impossible.
 
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