The Questionable Balancing Benchmark for Character Damage Multipliers

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, Sofy Happy said:

I understand your point, but you seem to miss my core argument.
Wolfgang’s high damage output comes with almost no real tradeoffs, and this breaks the balance benchmark when evaluating the cost of offensive stats for every other character.
What I have always wanted is a reasonable rework:
add meaningful, gated tradeoffs to his damage bonus, while granting him unique, engaging utility mechanics in return to make his playstyle less monotonous.
This kind of give-and-take adjustment would keep his overall comprehensive power roughly unchanged.
At the same time, his offensive scaling would finally fit into the unified balance standard.
You can take Wanda as a reference for this design philosophy, though Wolfgang does not need to become a simple glass cannon copy.

 

All of these characters gain their powerful abilities with reasonable tradeoffs or stage-locked restrictions, unlike Wolfgang.
I do not know what you are referring to with Wigfrid’s supposed downsides, but she has to progress through the game’s timeline to obtain her charged spear.
Wickerbottom pays a heavy sanity cost in exchange for her unique capabilities.
Woodie’s core limitation remains intact: he cannot properly use items or equipment, and his entire build is stuck at mid-game power with no late-game scaling. This fundamental flaw is never truly fixed by his skill tree.
Winona is clearly gated by game progression and resource costs; she falls behind most characters in strength until you defeat the Celestial Champion.
I am specifically talking about in-game costs tied to obtaining offensive power, not  generic passive weaknesses.

I think you are missing what I'm getting at. Wolfgang in his current a state doesn't have enough going on to warrant a bigger downside maybe I'd feel differently Klei finally gets around to skill tree refreshes but as it stands he's in line with the rest of the cast. With his role being he doesn't gain much but in exchange he doesn't need to do much.

 

2 hours ago, Sofy Happy said:

do not know what you are referring to with Wigfrid’s supposed downsides, but she has to progress through the game’s timeline to obtain her charged spear.

By the way this isn't the equivalent comparsion. Wigfrid gets a free damage multiplier, free defense multiplier, and free life steal her spear isn't a factor because it's equipment something Wolfgang has to obtain as well. Her downside is her loose all meat diet that has many exceptions to the point of ignoring it.

2 hours ago, Sofy Happy said:

Wickerbottom pays a heavy sanity cost in exchange for her unique capabilities.
Woodie’s core limitation remains intact: he cannot properly use items or equipment, and his entire build is stuck at mid-game power with no late-game scaling. This fundamental flaw is never truly fixed by his skill tree.
Winona is clearly gated by game progression and resource costs; she falls behind most characters in strength until you defeat the Celestial Champion.
I am specifically talking about in-game costs tied to obtaining offensive power, not  generic passive weaknesses.

His cost is his mighty meter which isn't as impactful but again this is because unlike everyone else mentioned his niche is a lot smaller overall. Compare what he can do vs what they can. There was a time when compare was more rare but now everyone specializes in it so then we look beyond that and see how far he falls behind.