teitan
Legend
There is no way you can tell me with a straight face that 3e was more balanced than 2e.
For one, the martial-caster divide was by far the worst it ever was in 3e. All those mechanics that 2e spellcasters had to deal with, clunky as they were, helped rein them in at least a little bit. Removing those mechanics for 3e would've been all well and good, except 3e completely neglected to introduce some other mitigating factors in order to account for the insane boost it gave to spellcasters. And then on top of that, 2e martials were still able to move freely and make all of their attacks in a round, each with the same bonus. 3e martials had to restrict their movement to a single 5-foot step if they wanted to make their multiple attacks, and their bonuses declined with each attack unlike in 2e.
So in 2e you had martials who could move freely and make all their attacks, and casters who had to stay in place when they casted a spell. In 3e, this was the exact opposite; martials were stuck in place, making multiple attacks that unlike in 2e had diminishing returns, and casters were moving around the battlefield as much as they wanted. 2e high-level casters still outclassed martials despite this, but 3e exacerbated this divide 100 times over.
Also, 2e never had classes that were as utterly worthless on the table as the Ranger was in 3.0, or the Paladin was throughout 3e's entire lifespan.
Yes it was more balanced but still greatly unbalanced.