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There was a lot of the bolded going around in the late 1990s-early 2000s as people thought back on their 1e days in the early 80s. WotC was able to use that nostalgia in their 3e marketing, and it worked.

The problem isn't balance in itself, the problem is that the balance was achieved through same-ness. When one class looks mechanically very much like all the other classes, yes they're balanced but it's at cost of mechanical difference, and it's that difference that provides that flexibility...

If these are all intended to be PC-playable, what drawbacks or penalties do the non-Humans get in trade-off for their extra abilitles, so as to keep them the least bit balanced with Humans?

Problem with having several small (actually, medium-size) companies each publishing and promoting their own systems is that inevitably two things will happen: --- the hobby will fracture into camps each supporting their preferred system --- some of the disputes between those camps will get ugly...

That the foes can and will use the same tricks as the PCs (assuming all else is equal) is a given. Context? What's that? "There's six Ogres approaching, here's their positions. What do you do?" is all this player needs. Other people can worry about the whys and wherefores. Yep - seen that...

That's fairly easy to deal with: whoever last flew it counts as the current "owner". Like as if flying it achieves instant small-a attunement but just carrying it around does not. Less reputable characters could take shameless advantage of this - sell the broom to someone, take the money...

Being able to fly over the front line in a tight passage in order to get to the back-line casters is huge. Also, if a foe is otherwise surrounded you can attack it from above unless there's no room between the foe's head and the ceiling. And best of all, terrain becomes a non-factor. The...

Depending, of course, how deep the water is. Most of the Mediterranean is relatively shallow, as are most coastal waters*. The open Atlantic or Pacific, not so much; and while Water Breathing lets you breathe down there it doesn't solve the pressure problem... * but not all - there's places...

Of course they wouldn't; and neither would I, given that a simple Dispel Magic at the wrong moment would kill me outright. The Saddlebag has some good and cool magic items but that, I'm afraid, is not one of them.

The bolded is, to me, rather shocking. Next to invisibility, always-available flight is the best individual ability a character can have! So useful in so many situations, even including combat.

Huh. I must have nerfed the remote-action piece without even realizing it, as I've never let brooms do anything without a rider on board. That said, I see I wasn't misremembering about there being a weight limit, namely 182 + (14 x 30) or 602 lbs. after which it has a move rate of 0. I guess...

It went along with their whole resistance to magic piece. Dwarves and Hobbits couldn't be arcane casters, and got save bonuses vs magic. The Gnome being on that list, however, doesn't make sense.

If brooms in fact no longer have a weight limit, slapping a lead keel on one side is the obvious solution. Failing that, hanging a keel from the broom with stout rope works, though it makes takeoff and landing more awkward. Next phase in this evolution: Tenser's Floating Disc becomes Tenser's...

3e merely formalized and named a concept that had been around since day one: that you could only wear two magic rings at a time, one on each hand.

A few of those elements are new to me and given their addition, I can see why you'd think it overpowered. I'm fine with no limit on usage, it having a decent flight speed, and no attunement. I'm not so keen on having it operate remotely - I mean, even Harry Potter has to use a summoning spell...

The bolded is where we disagree, I think. And if a player wants to have their character spend the time, money, and creativity to make the Broom more useful, I'm fine with it! Note however that adding a saddle is going to make carrying passengers somewhat more difficult... Then again, I also...

Availability. Not everyone can have a Broom when over the campaign there's only one ever randomly happens to come up for sale and another shows up in a dungeon somewhere. Never mind that in 1e at least, Brooms are fragile things - hit one with a Fireball and if its rider or carrier fails the...

Decades ago I threw together a homebrew system for ship-v-ship combat using ballistae, built around the idea that you'd be rolling to hit the target ship at all (with modifiers for distance, sea conditions, relative speed, etc.) and on a successful hit it would then be random just what part of...

I love those players! And after they burn the dungeon down they realize that all the sweet sweet treasure that dungeon contained has also gone up in smoke*. Problem at that point usually becomes self-solving. * - or, as with the party I'm running right now, buried: their go-to solution to a...

The hulls might have bounced them but massive ballista bolts would make a mess of any sails and-or rigging they hit (thus slowing the target so you could catch it and board it, or - if on the other side - give yourself a better chance to escape) And a direct hit on one or more people, or on...