(Note this post is rather disjointed and hit on 3-4 main topics that could have probably been their own posts, but I felt the need to puke on my keyboard while I could keep everything in my head.)

Sorry guys, but 10 paths total per character is just so few...

This may have been an intentional design feature, and I see that 'capping' or trading out skills just doesn't quite work with the way the stats and leveling are... but being stuck with no room for growth for the entirety of a character's life is one of the big reasons for character A.D.D.

10 paths forces a few fundamental things in character building. If you develop a strong archetypical concept, ie rogue/fighter/mage then you still don't even have enough slots to be good at all of that branch. Fine, that encourages some variety of build. But if you want to in essence 'multiclass' you really begin to sacrifice effectiveness in some grevious ways, specifically with the practicality of how useful some paths are over others.

For instance, Daze/Immobilize. Best. Path. Ever. You do damage and inconvenience, as well as remove an NPC/PC from the combat for a while. It works on everybody. All the time. It only gets better with leveling. Daze/Immobilize is an amazing example of something leveling well.

On the other hand, look at any of the sundry Willpower effects that the player base has access to. (I've heard some juicy ones get called by NPC's, but they are apparently secret, unlockable, or too darn good or game imbalancing.) Why on earth would you EVER use SIlvertongue except for flavor when there is a very good chance that it won't work on anyone its worth using on, it takes you out of the fight, and you can only use it once. Immobilize does nearly the same effect, but you can walk away and do damage to boot. So, it boils down to nearly all Willpower effects being for flavor only, unless you are a Lurking Haunt, which makes them better in that you can use them from interesting situations but does not fundamentally fix them. Goad is great (Lurking Haunt, while DEAD?!), and I don't really see a reason for intimidate.

On the subject of leveling up, and/or character evolution and development,

After event 2543, Character XYZ is still only getting more packets. They don't do any more effect, in the case of spells (other than the elites, which are nice but not new). Doing the same thing, but just more iterations of the same effect, is barely a reason to develop the skill. Setting down a firing position of a gazillion fireballs, however, is still an intriguing idea even if all they do is a couple damage with no fancy effects.

Another question i've been pondering is of Impede. When weapons only do 1-2 damage, how is Impede 3 through 10 useful?

But what of the evolution of a character? To use myself as an example, I've taken advantage of the free rebuilds to 'develop' my character's on-paper abilities akin to a time when we used to cap skills and take new ones by getting rid of the old or less useful ones, or to accomodate in character developments. Now I suppose that would be the realm of merit purchases for stat-retaining re-writes?

Maybe my rant is groundless, but I've been agonizing over which seven of all the paths to limit myself to for the rebuild. My main issues spring from trying to create a Black Guard Lurking Haunt. There just are not enough slots to develop the character to the degree that would be a flavorful and still effective character, and I feel compelled to take what would be more combat-effective over what would fit the flavor more (Immobilize vs. Intimidate, etc) in the effort to actually succeed at mod's... And while one could argue that being flavorful is all down to the portrayal of the character, it would be nice to call a Willpower effect on something besides a mook, once in a while, and not have it be laughed off even out of combat.

It boils down to : what do I want to be irreovcably stuck with for the next however-long, trapped forever in that pigeonhole?

Tony wrote Fire Magic.  Earth Magic.  Wind Magic.  Water Magic.  Strength.  Toughness.  Stun (or Combat Ready...really, it's a matter of preference).  BAM.  Bad-ass Shaman.

Bad-Naga is the only bad-ass shaman, and that's certainly not his build. 

Tony wrote Don't worry too much about "combat effectiveness" and "succeeding at mods."  I know you're a powergamer by nature, so I might be talking to the wind here, but you're LARPing.  Let the story and the acting do the talking, and an awesome, flavorful, well-built character will follow.

Fifth Age was designed with the intent on allowing people to play the game as they'd like, to the point that not caring about storyline, roleplay, or character development is perfectly fine, as long as you don't do anything to really destroy any of those. The difference here is being a dude who likes to fight and only fight, but being considerate to roleplaying and not doing anything to interfere with it's atmosphere; and a guy who's a great roleplayer but talks out of character about something stupid, such as CruxShadows, during a scene. That being said, I don't think Andrew throws those things away, but balances the story/roleplay stuff with the nuts and bolts on his sheet to a way that best works for him, like all of us do. I've certainly made strong roleplay characters at these types of games that were ludicriously powerful on paper. Do whatever works for you, just realize that if roleplaying isn't your thing, you should still respect it; and if you create a character that you just want to roleplay with and don't care about what's on the sheet, don't be upset when you can't do much of anything with what's on the sheet.

Also, Jess is very right. If you want to be able to rock the faces off every mod you go on, make a group. I promise you, they're extremely powerful when people synnergize together.

(Something pretentious),
Chris

P.S. This was really just an excuse to update the "latest post" information.