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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 5791987" data-attributes="member: 3887">Now *this* is what Harrison Bergeron-style D&D would look like!This is a variation on the common practice in superhero game encounter design, where the goal is to engage each PC with the challenge most appropriate to them, or at least to make the appropriate match-ups obvious to the players ie, send the hero with the ultra-sharp claws and instant healing against the giant, mutant-killing robot, not the hero who's an exceptional linguist (unless he's wearing his alien friend like a suit of powered armor -- sometimes I deeply regret knowing these kinds of thing...).In other words, the X-Men school of encounter design. Actually, I'm running this kind of game right now, more-or-less. Fairly by-the-book AD&D with a thief in the party. "Going easy on the thief" has been a guiding adjudicating principle (but not the reverse, "make it harder for the casters/specialized fighter"). Doing this sort of ad-hoc, on-the-fly balancing has been fairly easy so far, but it inevitably makes more work for the DM. And system really matters here; balancing AD&D, especially at lower levels isn't difficult, but I would want to do it under 3e, which neatly undoes a lot of 1e/2e balancing mechanisms w/r/t casting classes (in order to open up new avenues of play).My advice for balancing 3e/Pathfinder is simple: play a class with access to spells and rely on NPCs for the rest! (I kid... barely). For the record, I never felt marginalized by 3e or 4e. I had the same amount of authority/freedom as I did running older editions -- which was exactly equal to the amount the players gave me. Which was a lot. But I admit I may be quite lucky when it comes to players. I agree there's a certain pressure to operate within the constraints of the (admittedly complicated) rules framework present in the later editions. But that pressure came from me, not my players. Had I learned to relax a bit more, my 3e campaign would have been easier to DM! Here I agree completely. Resolving... well everything except unarmed attacks is much, much faster using pre-3e rules. There's a link to the Story Hour about my 3e campaign in my .sig, ie The Chronicles of Burne. *That's* my experience of player creativity under 3e. It's wildly creative. Also, funny (no really). Check it out if you get a chance.</blockquote>

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