Even in that criteria it's easily dismissable. It's philosophy lol.
Balance isn't really a big concern until it hits game wrecking or overshadowing the other players levels. In 5E that's usually level 17 or 18 comparing PCs. Assuming someone knows what they're doing and tries hard enough.
Game tends to fall apart before then.
In the last 2 years I have played over 10 games to level 20, most of them starting at level 1.
I will agree Balance is not generally a big concern in our group, but I will also say it changes during the course of the game. For example, I personally usually play highly optimized multiclass characters that multiclass very early (before level 5). When I say "optimized" I am optimizing around a character idea, not building the most powerful build possible. I am purposely using combos of rules to make my off the wall non-standard, against archetype character ideas powerful.
These characters are typically very powerful in tier 2 and tier 3 and I am often "overshadowing" other PCs through most of tier 2 and tier 3. But these same characters are also often overshadowed themselves in tier 4 and sometimes in parts of tier 1.
So does that make them balanced?
Also another key to the characters I build - mediocre Constitution. Either a 10 or a 12 on point buy. The "professional optimizers" will tell you to run a high Constitution but IME running a high constitution with a generally weak character class means your character will often be overshadowed because for most characters Constitution is generally the least useful ability in the game. Compared with having a mediocre score in another stat, there are generally better and less detrimental ways to mitigate liabilities associated with a low constitution. That is why I can make a character who is mostly a Fighter or Rogue but is also one of the most dominant characters in the party at all 3 phases.
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