Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3119364" data-attributes="member: 22779">I doubt I've seen much lost in the wash with balance.  Considering the sheer volume of material published for 3e, I would say that balance, and the quest thereof, has had absolutely zero impact on the quantity or quality of publications.Actually, with the fact that designers have one eye on balance, we haven't seen the unbelievable power creep that destroyed both 1e and 2e.  There are no Cavalier rules in 3e like we saw in 1e.  There is no Faiths and Avatars allowing clerics to use Druid xp tables while casting fireballs in chainmail.  Think about it, with the thousands of PrC's out there, dozens of base classes, the number of truly broken of either are very, very few.  Most require some fairly shifty rules interpretations and pulling from several sources.  It's not like we see NPC classes in Dragon anymore.The difference between optimal and suboptimal in 3e is usually not all that much.  Taking a dagger will not make you competely inneffective in 3e.  A dex based fighter can hold his own - he hits more and gets hit less.  It also depends on the campaign.  Yes, I agree that Power Attack and 2handed weapons is probably the optimal choice, but, sword and board isn't that far behind and neither is two weapon fighting.In earlier editions, the longsword absolutely ruled.  To the point where modules called it a "normal" sword.  Best damage, best speed factor, best of everything.  To the point where it was blatantly better.  That's my point about balance.  Sure, some options might seem better than others.  But, in a balanced system, no choice is so much better that any other choice is deliberately handicapping.  Sure, players might take a dagger wielding fighter in 2e, but, they were useless.  I never played with people who felt that being dead weight in a party was a good thing.</blockquote>

Verification