Why yes this is a powergaming discussion. We literally discuss the game balance. Thats a powergaming topic. Not a storytelling topic nor a roleplaying topic.
The forum is about powergaming and the thread is about powergaming.
About the various exploits you mentioned, I dont really mind they are in the game. If you start to use stuff like Radiant Orbs and Arcane Acuity and Reverbration etc then the game gets quite easy. Though honestly you probably have to have these elements otherwise the ironman mode would be even more of a PITA. The game is endless and there are a LOT of encounters. Managing them all without reload aint easy.
But for this topic I just mind that if you just play the game without trying to exploit anything, one class, Rogue, clearly lags behind.
As I pointed out above, you can stack various resistances to get really over the top high durability. I repeat:
- Wildhear rage with the Bear Heart, which you get as Wildheart (3), requires you to attack every turn though, and doesnt work against psychic damage
- plus Uncanny Dodge from a Thief (5), unfortunately only once per turn, and it also uses up your reaction
- plus the two lover rings with an Abjuration WIzard - who with correct play on high levels has zero danger of ever actually getting damaged; the Barbarian would die before the Wizard
- plus any damage resistance you can get, which is applied AFTER all three halfling of damage happeing above
- plus as high armor class as you can manage from high Dexterity and using a medium armor that has no limit on Dexterity bonus plus Shield plus possibly other sources of AC, to minimize the number of hits you have to mitigate in the first place
- plus as many hitpoints as possible from Con 16 and the Tough feat, though honestly thats probably at this point not really necessary anymore, but i wanted to demonstrate the maximum possible
- plus finally temporary hitpoints every single round from Stallion Aspect, which you get as Wildheart (6), and which you can get again and again by using the Bonus Action from Rogue and the extra Bonus Action from Thief
Thats a lot more than just the basic high hitpoints and resistance against physical damage that every Barbarian gets, or just the resistance against all damage but psychic from Bear Heart.
