Suggested Balance Changes

[SirValentine]

In my opinion, the enhancement tree should also have a minimun class level limitation.
Such as:
T1 requires class lv1
T2 requires class lv3
T3 requires class lv6
T4 requires class lv9
T5 requires class lv12

I'll /sign to that.

[IronClan]

In my opinion, the enhancement tree should also have a minimun class level limitation.
Such as:
T1 requires class lv1
T2 requires class lv3
T3 requires class lv6
T4 requires class lv9
T5 requires class lv12

This just breaks 99% of the characters in the game in a way that the enhancement pass didn't even get close to doing. It would be an unmitigated disaster to redesign the system, especially considering it's obvious popularity.

Turbine blew open multiclassing and rewarded triple classing and deeper than 2 level splits for a reason, I believe their metrics showed that they lost a TON of new players who took flack for "gimpy" multiclass which for a lot of the games elitists were anything over 2 level splashes, that wasn't an established Forum build like Exploiter rangers, Batmen, etc...

They shuffled the deck so well that most of the Jerks don't know what to be elitist about any more even casters with deep multiclasses involving other types of casting are totally viable (in some cases OP) Basically they made it harder for some people in the game to be d*cks You can't even legitimately claim that a 12 wizard 8 Cleric is a gimp any more LOL.

For this reason alone I would suspect you have NO CHANCE of convincing them to go back to the bad old days of making anything more than 2 level splashes "gimpy".

Sadly for some people this means that pure class or 2 splash character builds will be relegated to only being the best at 4 or 6 specialties instead of almost all of them... I personally prefer the new way to the old way. As I'm not sure why the game should reward people for the act of following the least imaginative pathway with the least choices made.

[DrawingGuy]

The enhancement pass broke few characters (if any, pures) as it made access to enhancements easier. As Enhancements have more power than feats and are only pitted against a few core enhancements for level restrictions, multi-classing is a must unless you stubbornly want to role play or niche your role to Assassin or Pale Master. The old way was indeed too restrictive (only one PrC, every single enhancement not only had steeper reqs, but each rank had higher level reqs). The new way the fruit is too low hanging - you can grab the full power of a PrC tree with 5 class levels with any more just being to snag the core level you want - though only one class needs 5+ as you can dip 4 deep with 4 only levels in other classes. It's not even a factor of building to cherry pick enhancements - it's splash and get everything you want. By making the levels needed steeper so you then have to build more carefully to get what you want. Do I want 12 fighter / 6 monk / 2 pali so I can get Power Surge? Or 10 fighter / 6 monk / 4 pali so I can get Divine Might? Or just a splash of FvS on your Sorc gives a Fire Savant a FULL second line of crit chance, SP on crit, +3 caster level, +3 spell pen, 30 spell power, etc. It instead would be deciding between Sorc spell numbers over additional power granted by FvS. Other flavor of the month builds like Monkcher wouldn't really be affected by this changes as it actually is built over feats with the racial PrC being it's core - EDs are what push that over the edge.

Really, though, would this affect a lot of builds? Yes, since a lot of builds are taking advantage of the cheap buy-in. Would it break diversity? No - it just means people would have to specifically plan their build to reach specific abilities instead of simply just being given everything. Also going pure class should not be punished for being 'uncreative'; it should be a competitive build choice for those that want to play as a pure for every class.

Is the current system bad? No, I do enjoy it more than the old system... I just think it forces multi-classing due to the sheer power it provides for everything but flavor builds and the very niche role PrCs. I do think it should be more restrictive to narrow the scope and force more build planning and sacrifices to reach certain abilities, but it won't stop me from playing. Simply means I take advantage of it on my meta builds and just enjoy my flavor/pure builds for what they are. My flavor builds may not be able to solo EE content without 10 times the effort (read this as powerful multi-classes make it 10 times easier), but doesn't mean they're unplayable.