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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3283318" data-attributes="member: 22779">As has been mentioned already, while balance is difficult, if not impossible to achieve, it remains a very admirable goal.When elements within an RPG are unbalanced, it causes far more problems.  A recent thread talked about how earlier editions of D&D greatly rewarded cheating during chargen because of the way the stat bonuses were arranged.  To the point where later chargen systems (original Unearthed Arcana, I'm looking at you) were pretty insane.The two weapon fighting rules in 2e are another poster child for this.  A longsword/shortsword armed fighter wasn't a little better than any other fighter out there, he was lightyears better.  To the point where not taking that combination (or better yet - two longswords) was a deliberate choice to handicap your character.  One could argue that the power attack feat is another example.  It makes two handed weapon fighting just too good.  Sword and board is arguably very substandard choice and two weapon fighting get's fobbed off to rangers and rogues.  Any time unbalanced mechanics clearly favour a given choice, then it becomes intrusive to the point where you have only two choices - either take the better choice or deliberately handicap yourself.  While we will never have a perfectly balanced game, that's not the point.  The point is that every element of the game should always been measured against other options so that no single option becomes a blindingly obvious choice.  3.x has managed this rather well IMO.  None of the new classes coming out of WOTC has been heralded as being the biggest dogs on the block.  If anything, most are criticized for being too weak.  There's how many PrC's in print from WOTC?  Which one is the most obvious choice for power?That's what balance gives you.  It allows you to green light options for the players while being fairly certain that you aren't going to wind up with something that's going to wreak havoc on your campaign.</blockquote>

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