Bringing PAM, SS, and GWM in line?

[Blue Lantern]

Balance isn't important.

My first character was a 3e fighter. I sort of knew it was bad, but I liked the simplicity. By sixth level, I was totally sidelined by the party druid. I could still do things, sort of, but combat was mostly a game of 'try not to die.' by tenth level, it was basically unplayable. I still had fun, though. Role-playing is just that great, and I had a good group of guys. But I've had a lot more fun playing characters that were actually good at what they were intended for.

Firsts of all, congratulation for attributing me a quote that I never written in the first place, firstly it make me feel like an internet celebrity, and secondarily it shows just exactly what are the chances of having an honest discussion, so I'll respond just once to reiterate and clarify my point and then ignore you for the rest of my life.

I never said that balance wasn't important. All I said is that is not the most important point, and that it is perfectly fine for people to play with the rules as they are because for the most part it will not be an issue, and the effort required to create a series of hourules to perfectly balance everything without creating unintended consequences is much more than most players will ever need.

5e is not 3.5, the difference with the best and worst option are not as large and is perfectly possible for both to coexists and contribute equally to a game.

It's demonstrably false that players don't recognize how op sharpshooter etc. are. There are threads about this crap like every other week, by players or DMs who are frustrated. 20-30 damage a round against foes at level four or so is 100% obtrusive.

A BM sharpshooter with crossbow expert can pretty effectively nullify the cons of sharpshooter wilst simultaneously maximizing the pros of it. That is bad.

And it is It's demonstrably false that every player, even if they recognise the imbalance have issues with it or let it take away from their fun. People like you who take issues with every little problem in the rules are a minority, a very vocal and annoying one, but a minority nonetheless.

If balance was the only important point, or even the most important point in an RPG in general, and in D&D in particular we will still all be playing 4th edition right now.

Sure. I have done this fairly frequently. But wouldn't it be better if that cool option wasn't suboptimal to begin with?

Yes, but not to the point of needing to change the game for the sake of it

That's exactly my point. A new player won't go to the handbook, will pick a weak option, and feel crappy when he sucks relative to the guy who did. Weak and strong options are not friendly to new players.

That is not my point at all, you are either misunderstanding or wilfully misinterpreting. Just because you had this issue, not all new players will. And if we go by anecdotal evidence I have dozens of people I played with who never had issues with the balance or lack thereof, and none who had.