I'm still a bit confused about the limitations most of you are suggesting on the crystal and the darker malts.
According to the extraction table (5.1) from Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers, crystal malts have virtually the same extraction value as base malts and chocolate/black/roast have about 10 gravity points less.
I like malt-forward beers, and don't care if they are dark in color as long as they taste good to me. If I used 50% pale, 45% crystal of various lovibonds, and 5% black, you think the beer would taste awful?
I understand the black and roast would add bitterness, so I would use them sparingly.
Thanks in advance for your advice.