Yeah, but that's not the choice. The choice is between being War Machine, who has to sit around and hope that Tony Stark builds him an upgrade, and Magneto - who simply rocks out with his cock out whether he has special equipment or not.fectin wrote:If your character can do just as well with a stick as an artifact, that's because he is shitty with both. It is way better to be Thor or Ironman or Green Arrow than Schmuckface The Bystander.
More generally, the Christmas Tree problem comes down to two things:
- Managing large lists of equipment that provides individually small bonuses is a whole lot like computing taxes. It is not fun and a real pain in the ass. I don't give a rat's ass about my ring of deflection +1 or my amulet of natty armor +2 - only in aggregate do those things matter at all.
- Team Monster shows up without equipment much of the time. Mr. Owlbear seriously shows up to the set drunk just five minutes before filming and puts in a perfectly adequate performance while naked. If your character needs eight glowing bonus items strapped to his balls to compete with that, he's lame. Your character is not very impressive because he needs visible buffs to compete with monsters who don't have them.