OK, Everybody out of the Pools!

OK, here's my biggie for the day, brace yourselves.

I think it would be a very good idea to do away with Pool Power sets. I've got several reasons for thinking this would be a good thing, and can't think of a one to support keeping the current PP structure. (First, let me clarify, I'm talking about the "Pool Power" sets, not the basic archetype power sets.)

My first and best reason for doing this is an infinate increase in character flexibility. (More on this in a minute.) But the strongest support for "why not!" is that the game already has controls in place to handle it. Yep. All pool powers beyond the first already require prerequisit powers or a minimum level. That already is all you need to dictate buying PP powers.

How many of you wanted to take Flight but not Hover or Air Superiority? Or Super Jump but not Combat Jumping or Jump Kick? Or Stamina but not Swift or Hurdle? How often do you really use the "lesser" pool powers once you've got the one you wanted in the first place? What would be so wrong with just being able to take Flight at level 14 or Stamina at level 20? I say nothing. You don't get it any sooner than you would have before, which keeps it at exactly the same game-balance level it already has. And you can still buy the lesser powers at earlier levels if they're ones you want.

Now for the "flexibility" portion of our show. I ask you this: WHERE THE HELL IS MY GIANT GROWTH? ....MY CLINGING? ....MY SHAPE CHANGE? While I haven't heard anything from Cryptic, and I'm sure each provides programming hurdles of their own, I suspect the first and most progress-ending reason is because they don't fit neatly into the current power/archetype structure. Things like this really aren't archetype-specific nor do they build easily into a cohesive Pool Power grouping.

Therefore, I propose we throw off the shackles of our tightly pre-pooled powers and let the powers roam freely where they will! Continue setting each Pool power a minimum level requirement and let 'em go. Now power creation becomes much less restrained.

Clinging: Available at level 6. Toggle power. Gives the character the ability to stand on vertical and inverted surfaces and to move on those surfaces at his normal movement rate.

Tadaa. Wasn't that easy? Don't have to be worried about it being tied to anything else.... no "designer's guilt" about creating the power. It's just there for those who want it. I've had a lot of powers pop into my head, but I've always gotten tangled up in the "how"s and "why"s and "with what"s of utilizing them as part of a larger pool or set. Now I don't have to. Having taken this hypothetical step in altering the game, I'm probably going to be writing up and posting a lot of potential powers here now that would be great in the larger, free-range Power Pool.