Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 3503931" data-attributes="member: 545">Testify, brother!This sense of balance seems to be what players actually care about IMNSHO.Mechanical Balance is only a tool to achieve this.&nbsp; A good mechanical system can get you within a stone's throw of Play Balance while running on autopilot.&nbsp; Any crazy game system can theorectically be balanced by the efforts and foresight of a Great DM.&nbsp; The immense attraction of a mechanically balanced system is that even Poor DMs who are striving to learn the ropes can get most of the benefits of Play Balance with little or zero effort.Given the variance in skills and enthusiasm for number crunching between players, there is no guarantee that any system can achieve balance without occasional DM fiat, and only if we make very optimistic assumption that the system is reasonably mechanically balanced in the first place.I think the biggest reason that the Unbalanced Cleric is balanced in actual play is that it is simply easier to earn a piece of the glory while playing other classes.&nbsp; Maybe your numbers show how much better your Cleric is than my Barbarian, but I know that everyone will be singing his praises and talking about how much ass he kicked at the funeral -- that is good enough for me!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 3503931, member: 545"] Testify, brother! This sense of balance seems to be what players actually care about IMNSHO. Mechanical Balance is only a tool to achieve this. A good mechanical system can get you within a stone's throw of Play Balance while running on autopilot. Any crazy game system can theorectically be balanced by the efforts and foresight of a Great DM. The immense attraction of a mechanically balanced system is that even Poor DMs who are striving to learn the ropes can get most of the benefits of Play Balance with little or zero effort. Given the variance in skills and enthusiasm for number crunching between players, there is no guarantee that any system can achieve balance without occasional DM fiat, and only if we make very optimistic assumption that the system is reasonably mechanically balanced in the first place. I think the biggest reason that the Unbalanced Cleric is balanced in actual play is that it is simply easier to earn a piece of the glory while playing other classes. Maybe your numbers show how much better your Cleric is than my Barbarian, but I know that everyone will be singing his praises and talking about how much ass he kicked at the funeral -- that is good enough for me! [/QUOTE]

Verification