3E and the Culture of Balance

[kigmatzomat]

In previous editions, with a little more nebulous round, you might have an active player declare 3-4 actions. They would be strung together to sound logical and it wasn't necessarily a matter of the player trying to cheat. The player might be envisioning the sequence of events in a different timeframe than other players, or the DM.

"I'm going to charge across the balcony and knock the flower box onto the guards below. As I reach the end of the balcony, I will leap out, swing on the flagpole, sommersault off and kick the captain of the guard onto the ground. Landing above him, I will draw my rapier and hold it at his throat.
'One wrong move Captain Ortiz and I will silence you forever, now order your men to release those peasants.'"

Small side note. If you are willing to skip the flower box and assuming this was all in a straight line you could do it all in one round. Charge (double movement = 60'), use tumble/jump as portion of the movement followed by a kick attack. The draw weapon is a free portion of a movement for anyone with BAB+1 and the comment is a free action, though I think it should be shorter.

A monk or someone with boots of springing/striding could do it for distances greater than 60 foot or could go around corners if less than 60'. Same goes for a psion with Crooked Charge.

I don't think d20 lacks the swashbuckling, I think people occassionaly forget the setup Erol Flynn would do prior to his daring-do.

Now, as Mallus suggests, this can sterilize your games. They key is to use the mechanics to improve the game. If your group is into swashbuckling and derring do and _everyone_ is participating, give them more rope. If you want to encourage that behavior, add a derring-do action to the standard action & move action sequence. If you want momentary snatches of heroism, at fate points or swashbuckling cards. Just be consistent and make sure each player is getting that spotlight.

Yup, this is the thing. I've got a relatively new player running a fairly high-levl monk. He's slowly stepping through the actions and tends towards being conservative. When I notice it, I ask him what his goal is and then explain the 2-3 options I see available. In one fight, he was charging ahead to tackle the 3-story monster demolishing the city while the others followed. (Jump checks in the 90's might as well be flight!) He was going to charge it and hit it once. I pointed out he could either use Spring Attack to hit it and keep going or use his Monk's Belt Haste to move in and then take a full attack.

People say the monk doesn't get the spotlight but it's my opinion that the monk doesn't necessarily put the critter down, he's the reason the party did. A half-dozen grapple checks a round tend to result in success and during that time the rogues get sneak attacks and ACs go through the floor.

"Balance" is both an external thing, in the baseline rules, and an internal thing, among your group. I think the basic rules do a good job establishing a common baseline for each D&D player using the ruleset. This is something that previous editions were less oriented toward. But I think the goal of all that baselining was to make it easier for run a "basic, balanced game."

There will always be people that will work within the rules better than others. Good DMing is still required. I think the current version of the rules provides a stronger framework for beginning DMs to work toward become good or even great DMs.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

 

[BSF]

Small side note. If you are willing to skip the flower box and assuming this was all in a straight line you could do it all in one round. Charge (double movement = 60'), use tumble/jump as portion of the movement followed by a kick attack. The draw weapon is a free portion of a movement for anyone with BAB+1 and the comment is a free action, though I think it should be shorter.

A monk or someone with boots of springing/striding could do it for distances greater than 60 foot or could go around corners if less than 60'. Same goes for a psion with Crooked Charge.

I don't think d20 lacks the swashbuckling, I think people occassionaly forget the setup Erol Flynn would do prior to his daring-do.

Absolutely! I put the flowerbox in there for a reason.

One question: Would it be "unbalanced" to allow the PC to push the flowerbox off the balcony and still pull everything off in a single turn? Suppose they were willing to just take a wild push at it and would have to make a reflex save and it only had a 25% to hit anybody?

I would say that depends on your game. If everyone is trying over the top stunts, then it would be "balanced". If one player is more vocal and nobody else is trying it, maybe you should allow it to encourage more swashbuckling? Or you might need to nip it in the bud to make sure everyone is getting the spotlight.

It really isn't a hard & fast call. It depends on a lot of factors. As I have said, I wouldn't allow somebody to tell me it was "unbalanced" unless they understood all my reasons for making the call that I do. What works great for one group might be a problem in another. Just be sure you understand your reasons for making a decision on the fly. If you need to, re-think that decision later and bring it up with the group.

But let me ask this question. Does anyone else think it's balanced that the Wizard class, as well as a couple of other spellcasting classes, but mostly the wizard, have to spend XP to cast certain spells and create magic items? How does this balance against other classes that don't have to spend XP? Also, how balanced is it when wizards have to spend their treasure and earnings on spell components, and the other classes don't? -- Now, of course, some groups put a certain amount of money towards buying spell components for the wizard along with magical items for the other classes, and then divide the remaining for personal wealth. But I know some groups want all the treasure divided equally, and whatever cost the spellcasters incure upon themselves so they can cast powerful spells...well, so be it!

For my current game, I did away with EXP hits for magic items. I am using the Artificer's Handbook as well. I want them to spend the feats, then take the time and raw materials (money investment) to make items. Talk about changes that some people would decry as unbalanced! One criticism for the Artificer's Handbook is that some items are too cheap. That might be true, but a lot will depend on your game economy. Mine is running with a lower wealth threshhold. As far as spells go, I still keep the costs in place for those. Down the road I might re-evaluate those but I run a game with enough modifications as it is. There is only so much time in a day.

I could never figure out why there would be so much magical arms and armor in the world when wizards are the most likely item creators and they have to blow exp to make them. If I were a wizard, I would be making stuff to buff me up long before I made items that would allow the local warlord to take my head off. *shrug* I guess for henchmen and the like...

If you are having issues with spellcasters losing exp while making items, you could house-rule that anyone can contribute exp to the creation of a magic item. This would allow the party to participate and offset the exp cost. Or you could just remove exp costs. At that point your limiting factor is materials. You can use specialized materials that have inherent magic (and an EXP value) that can be used to make items. These could be quested after, or purchased in specialized places. Or you can simply do away with everything except the cost to create. If you do that though, you might want to change it so the PC's pay full price. Whatever works for your game and just be sure you understand why you want to make the change.