a question of balance

[Zappo]

I voted most important, but maybe I didn't exactly understand what you meant.

I think that it is "most important" that two characters, equal level, equivalent stats, equivalent equipment, are about as powerful overall. That's what I call balance. I voted "most important" because this property never gets in the way of anything, in any way.

However, I don't mind parties with characters of different levels, for example. There are lots of examples from literature. However, the highest the difference, the harder it becomes to keep the game interesting for everyone at the same time.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

To me balance is the alfa/omega of the whole game. Without it, the game woulden't function, some characters would be overpowered and so on. This dosen't meen though, that the DM have to restrict the game, by using lots of house rules. It's a question of balance so what PC's have, or can do, NPC's/monsters can have, and do also. Some rules in the game have to be corrected, accroding to me, and that's why almost all gamers and DM's use house rules.

 

[Bregh]

Balance schmalance.

As DM, I ensure many opportunities for every PC to be killed.

 

[Nifft]

I prefer that PCs be balanced against each other. The world is not a nice balanced place, though... the PCs should expect to win some and to run away from others.

-- N

 

[diaglo]

As DM, I ensure many opportunities for every PC to be killed.

and the players have fun doing it.

 

[Wombat]

I've run games with wildly divergent party levels and had fun

I've run games where all characters were exactly the same level and had nearly the same about of XP that were miserable

And I've run the reverse of each of these

Depends on the players, depends on the particular game and session.

In the end, for most of my players, it's about the story, first, and about the mechanics, far second, but this can reverse in specific situations.

 

[Meeki]

Inner party balance can be boring and dull especially if all the chars are happy because the player is happy that his char is equal to all the other chars in the group. Certain people are naturally better than others and this should be so in D&D. It creates peronsality and opportunities to roleplay. I have seen groups who just whine about the imbalance in the group and those type of people deserve to be drawn and quartered. As far as stats go if you roll a decent stat line just take the damn thing and play with it, I can see rerolling if your stat line is horrendous with no stat over 12 but plane sailing's comment about ditching stat rolling just demonstrates how whiney his players are and how possibly weak their ability to roleplay is since they have to substitute stats and numbers to have fun with D&D. Now i know that not everyone is a good roleplayer and not everyone plays D&D to roleplay. If this is the case than having an "underpowered" character compared to someone else's character in the group should come as a challenge to you to play your character to the best of his abilities and push the envelope instead of whining about imbalanced stats. Some D&D players sicken me because I have to listen to them open their mouths to spew out a whiny pitched sentence that they need more stuff.

 

[Dimwhit]

3rd edition's obsession with balance annoys me to no end. 3.5 is even worse. So guess which one I picked...

 

[Grazzt]

3rd edition's obsession with balance annoys me to no end. 3.5 is even worse. So guess which one I picked...

Agreed with ya. IMC, balance exists, but not to the degree that it does in the standard rules (which is actually why there is such importance on balance..because they are standard "rules" for everyone). Characters win. Characters lose. Some PCs are more powerful than others...just how it is. And my players don't mind at all. (And we don't use point buy....ability scores are rolled... )

 

[Dimwhit]

Agreed with ya. IMC, balance exists, but not to the degree that it does in the standard rules (which is actually why there is such importance on balance..because they are standard "rules" for everyone). Characters win. Characters lose. Some PCs are more powerful than others...just how it is. And my players don't mind at all. (And we don't use point buy....ability scores are rolled... )

You don't live near Boise, do you?

Actually, I love playing with my group, and they're not obsessed with the balance too much. A little, but not to a horribly annoying degree.