Your orc was very smart and educated compared to 99% of all other orcs and even to common humans. Again, your only complaint is that you want more power because the role is perfectly playable without Tasha's and offers its unique challenges and journey. Just own it that you want to powergame instead of playing the role of an orc wizard.
It’ll go back and forth ad nausem.
Are people offended by being described as a power gamer? Is it because it’s referred negatively as munchkinism?
There’s nothing wrong with power gaming. You can roleplay and power game. It’s perfectly fine and I’d wager if we were all honest, the majority power game in their roleplay.
People seem to consider Critical Role as the pinnacle of roleplay (I see it as acting and theatrics) and it’s entertaining at times but if you look at their stats, yeah min maxed. And that’s okay.
Its usually cause Powergaming isn't exactly well defined so often has very negative connotations. A phrase like "You are not roleplaying, you are powergaming" that I have seen elsewhere creates a connotation (thought not explicitly) that the two are indeed completely separate and that by engaging with one, you are not doing the other, even if that is not the intended meaning. In circles I frequent, a Powergamer is often someone who ONLY cares about the game aspect, usually minmaxing, and does not engage with the Roleplaying aspect at all. I have seen other definitions, where it is just synonymous with minmaxing or the definitions others have provided in this thread. And often I have seen "powergaming" the reason Tasha's optional rule is bad cause it detracts from roleplay somehow. So often it has a very negative connotation and the idea that it is mutually exclusive from roleplaying, when the two can be very connected due to the structure of 5e.
