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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hanez" data-source="post: 5834970" data-attributes="member: 82160">I may be repeating this, but in the 400 threads I post a day, who knows, so here goes.In 3e, as DM, I took a necromancy spell netbook with hundreds of spells and gave it to a player who wanted to become a lich.  This was an amateur, collaboratively written online book  that was written for AD&D.So the player started using it, some spells sucked in it, some didn't.  At 7th level  found a spell the summoned something like 1d12 skeletons, 1d8 zombies, 1d4 raiths and a ghost, and he could cast it a few times a day.  It was CRAZY unbalanced.  If I knew this spell was in the book I would have deleted it.... but instead I dealt with the problem, I made some reeeaaally good items for the rest of the party, buffed my monsters, learnt some quick mass combat rules, and let him use the spell.  One of our FAVORITE D&D memories is the campaign where the party was followed around by legions of undead for level after level.  (the party knew I screwed up with this spell, but I rolled with the punches ).Anyways I tel this story because I want a system that allows me to do stupid things like the story above.  Sure don't print that horribly unbalanced spell, but dont give me a system where all spells work exactly the same either!  Let me make mistakes, they may turn out fun or I might learn a lesson!.  I want a system that lets cool things be cool, instead of squeezing them into a formula.  Try and Balance the game sure, but dont go crazy with that.  Try and simplify the mechanics please, but dont make every one work exactly the same.  I don't want a wizard or a cleric being more powerful then a fighter, please fix the problem, but dont fix it by completely changing what a wizard or a cleric is in the game.I know someone may read the above story and say, "so, you could have done that with any edition".  I would prerespond I dont think thats correct.  The super balanced edition told me as a DM in no uncertain terms, "we've done it all for you, stay away, everything is balanced, dont screw it up."  And I as an amateur DM was inclined to trust them.  This resulted in 2 years of boring tactical D&D for our group.   I personally believe that a system that focuses too much on the balance philosophy will result in boring tactical D&D for many groups.</blockquote>

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