#optamizing

My experience with actually playing D&D went quickly from low powered to OP to optimized. I think this is, in part, due to the people I played with. A big part would be how much time I put into studying and learning the game. There's no 'right way' to play, but I feel there is a 'good way' or 'better method' to approaching the game. Once you fall into the pit of cross classing, feat selection, and abusing game mechanics; well it's a long climb out.

When you first start playing opportunities to make a strong build are clear. This species gets +2 to strength, this class uses strength. It's a no brainer. Having a weak character isn't fun but you don't have to go straight to having a beast either. At this low level (out of game experience that is) the most fun can be had. Everything is new and exciting! If you are in a party all of the same power level the DM can easily adjust and send the appropriate monster out.

It's not until there's a jump in power levels that it gets tricky for the DM to balance. One or two players can play at a higher knoweldability and application, and they will likely end up being the powerhouses of the party. A full party of experienced players who aren't giving it their all makes for a beautiful, dynamic experience. I'm not saying one shouldn't put their full efforts into any in-game situation, but rather when the players know how to optimize but don't use crazy builds. A party acting like this can have a new-to-the-game player come in and learn quickly yet not feel far behind on start up. An experienced player can come in and not feel like they're dealing with a bunch of newbies. At this point you may be dealing with a bunch of books, but nothing that will break your backpack. It's when an 'any book goes' sandbox campaign is used, the beasts start to sneak out.

You've been playing for a year, you've read more than you'll ever need to read and built more sample builds than you'll ever play. You can pick apart game mechanics, explain how they work and how to abuse them. You can look at a list of classes and say, "If built correctly, these two will be the strongest characters, these will be good but over specialized and only function when their specialization if called upon, and these would make good minions to follow my God of a character. This raw amount of knowledge is awesome! But, after I worked with it for a while I found the game was lacking something.

No longer was I RPing but I was playing the progression of my character, waiting to get to it's full potential, narrating the process. It was clear what I needed to do and when, what items to make/buy/look for, and even what to suggest to the DM in order to push things in my favour (unethical, a question of should all players run the game or just the DM, and another topic all together). While playing with players who were mid-way between the first and second level of experience with the game it hit me, "Duh, why don't I just start building unoptimized builds?" and that's where it started to get really fun.

I like to divide game knowledge and ability into the three levels listed above, but there's a forth. When you break through and start to build with odd things intended. Sure, the mechanics behind an artificer making poison will take lots of time and therefore satisfy my desire to put time into a build, but when it comes to gameplay it may not hold up. Especially if I've neglected several aspects of optimization and made for more rollplaying content. This species doesn't match this class well, but oh well. I like this species and this class! If played intelligently I won't get put down right away, and something interesting is sure to arise if I spend most of the time with my party trying to convert them to another deity.

Of course there are always other options. Something I saw on my favourite D&D forum was a call to move back to basics. An attempt to play without the fluff rules which are found across thirty books that make for a realistic universe, A strive to use less classes and other options so there was less temptation to make super powerful builds. I was going to start building in this fashion if it wasn't for the release of 5e which has done a lot of streamlining and has little content to work with. So, I'm stoked to find a group and start the process all over again. This time slower, but I'm going to learn the game and then breath the game (then break the game, but shhh). Making the best character won't be an issue because it'll be fun.