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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9480623" data-attributes="member: 29398">This neatly serves to point out that there's different types of balance:--- balance between characters in here-and-now play situations (as in, how equal can everyone's contribution be in this combat or that social encounter or some other exploration piece)--- balance between characters on a here-and-now mechanical level (as in, if you had the charactes all throw down against each other, would each one have a roughly equal chance of winning or would one of them win every time)--- ongoing balance between the characters/party and the game world (is the party stomping everything it meets, or are they constantly getting stomped, or...)--- medium-term balance between characters (i.e. are there certain types of adventures or opponents that put some classes at a big advantage or disadvantage in dealing with them and does the campaign give each character a chance to shine)--- long-term balance between characters (as in the 1e Magic User, where  you suck now in order to potentially dominate later, or the 1e Ranger where you dominate early but (IME anyway) really run out of steam as the levels go by)There's probably a few other balance types I'm missing here.Some editions really lean into one type of balance over another.  1e was all about medium- and long-term balance and the here-and-now was largely left to its own devices.  4e was all about here-and-now mechanical balance (3e tried but didn't do it very well) and hoped the long-term stuff would take care of itself.  5e seems to be more about here-and-now balance in play but IMO really misses on the balance between the party and the game world: the game is too easy.And so the question becomes, which type of balance - if any - matters most?  I say this because I think trying to achiee every type of balance all at once is a fool's errand, unless you want every character to be the same (or mighty close) as every other character.Players are most often likely to focus on the here-and-now balance types largely because that's what they deal with every week*, while DMs perhaps pay more attention to the medium- and long-term types along with the balance vs the game world.  This will always be a low-grade tension between them, which I'm fine with.* - that said, IME players are far more likely to meaningfully consider medium- and long-term balance when talking over rule changes between campaigns.</blockquote>

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