Dirty Words in Gaming #2 - Optimization

Scheduling snafus have made this post a day late. My bad.

Last time we talked about Min-Maxing and how I think it is an ok practice since it does mimic life to an extent. But what happens when you take it too far? You cross the line into Character Optimization.

By name alone, Character Optimization doesn't sound all that bad. You are simply optimizing your character to excel in a few areas. That may be what the words mean, but that does not adequately describe the practice. Character Optimization is truly described as "what-if" thought experiments.

The practice results in character builds of ridiculous power. Characters such as Pun-Pun, The Terminator, and The Omniscificer. If you look over those characters, most likely you won't understand the way they work beyond a surface level. That's because Optimizing Characters requires a ridiculous knowledge of rules and bizarre interactions.

These characters are clearly not meant to be played as they win. However, the same techniques used to build them can be used on playable characters. This results in builds that generate near infinite attacks per round, do near infinite damage on one attack per round, cast spells with insurmountable DCs. These builds are far more subtle than the linked ones which makes them dangerous, since DMs may not be able to catch them before the game starts.

These builds are also designed to "win" at D&D. If you can do an infinite amount of damage on one attack er round, then the game isn't fun since combat will last for N rounds where N= number of monsters. Infinite attacks are just as unfun since each round you will kill one monster. This might make the game fun for the player playing the Optimized Build, but makes it incredibly boring for everyone else.

Never allow a truly optimized build in your games. You will regret it. Never play a truly optimized build in a game. You will regret it. It won't be fun, people will get bored, and feelings may get hurt.