Empowerment classes strong. Need limit on strong classes. Therefore empowerment good.

Personally I think empowerment limits more because it is a hassle than because of any better standard of role-play. Is that a good thing? Isn't there a better way of achieving balance?

Given that I don't buy the argument that empowerment improves role-play, I think a better way would be to remove empowerment and tweak the classes back into balance. Could be quite simple, like for paladins, implement a parity condition (except vs liches).