Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 5782464" data-attributes="member: 53980">I have to agree with those who say that magic was broken (or at the very least, eminently breakable) prior to 4e, with 3e being the worst offender. There were plenty of save or suck spells that didn't even really allow a save (such as Web, which was a death sentence for most creatures). The easy availability of scroll and wand crafting also contributed heavily (why bother instituting daily limits if you're going to allow them to be so easily circumvented). Gold and xp were not real limits, as gold was plentiful if you follow RAW/RAI and XP costs were quite marginal.That isn't to say that you couldn't play a group friendly wizard, or one who fought with one hand tied behind his back so as not to upset other group members, but it's a bit silly to expect everyone to do this. Which is why the system should be balanced. That isn't to say that classes can't be different from each other. Just that they should contribute fairly equally.Take the following for example. It's a very bare bones concept, so please don't try poking holes in it as that isn't what it's intended for. It isn't something I'm advocating, just an illustration to explain how classes might play differently from each other. (In one respect, it almost reverses the old fighter / wizard roles.)This fighter relies primarily on at-will abilities. He has a special attribute, which we'll call Stamina, that begins each encounter at maximum. He can use Stamina to boost his abilities, but once it's used it doesn't return until after a short rest. Thus, the fighter begins the fight at his strongest, but ends at his weakest.The wizard relies primarily on daily abilities. These are individually somewhat stronger than the fighter's at-wills. Additionally, the wizard can gather mana from the surrounding environment to enhance his spells even more. However, because mana is dangerous and can only be held for a short time, wizards start encounters with zero mana and gain a measured amount each round. As such, the wizard starts the encounter at his weakest and ends at his strongest.With some careful math and playtesting, both of these classes could be balanced, as you could measure out their impact on an expected adventure and make that roughly equal. The classes should also feel quite different. One is at-will, while the other is daily (the traditional fighter / wizard divide). One starts strong while the other finishes strong. The wizard's unmodified powers are more powerful than the fighter's, though the fact that the fighter gets Stamina at the beginning of the encounter makes it less of a clear issue as to who is actually stronger (IMO, the answer will vary from round to round and situation to situation).Would anyone be opposed to mechanically differentiated yet balanced classes? Again, please don't take issue with the fact that you don't like the idea of mana or some such, as again this is just for illustrative purposes. I'm not saying this is how I think the D&DN fighter and wizard should look, just that they could easily be equal yet different. If you do take issue with the idea of equal yet distinct, I would ask, on what basis do you do so?</blockquote>

Verification