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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 5143032" data-attributes="member: 8863">Pre-3e, at least the later versions I played had four types of balance mentioned above.Balance by Rarity was one of the big ones.  The powerful classes had the higher ability score and were supposed to be harder to achieve. That was the case if you were rolling 3d6 for the scores, but introduce a method where the player can assign scores at will, and that system breaks down. Especially if said system is the 4d6 method, where 15s, 16s, and 17s becomes easier to get and then are assigned at will.  And that's just one example.  A lot of powerful stuff was kept balanced by making it rare, however, I'd say it wasn't the best solution because if the random rolls come up right, the stuff gets in the game and might end up being overpowering.  Even worse if the stuff isn't rolled randomly and deliberately placed.  I'd rather stuff be balanced by keeping classes relatively equal but diverse, having a general power level for spells by level, and having an intended level range for magic items.  It makes it easier for a less experienced DM to keep things uder control.Balance over Campaign was another.  The older rules really balanced things out over the campagin as a whole rather than by adventure or encounter.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead to problems where the casters want to keep adventuring because they get more spells while the players with the fighter and thief are bored because all they get from leveling are a couple of hit points.  Here the problem was that the game was origianly only designed up to about level 10, new spell levels were tacked onto the casters without giving anything interesting to the non-casters except maybe running a kingdom or something.Balanced by DM Fiat was another big thing.  It didn't matter if say the PCs  couldn't fight equally well, becuase the DM was expected to give everyone something to do.  If something entered the campaign that messed things up, then the DM was encouraged to remove it or tone it down.  This can either be good or bad depending on the DM, really.  An inexperienced DM won't always know how to handle things, and bad DMs often use it as a power trip.Balance by Risk was the last.  Some spells and items were more dangerous to use, items couldn't be easily identified and so on.  I don't have a really big problem with this, though I'd rather not see too much risky stuff either.</blockquote>

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