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How important is game balance to you?
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<blockquote data-quote="MechaPilot" data-source="post: 7015775" data-attributes="member: 82779"><p>I find that perspective to be rather alien.</p><p></p><p>Virtually every time I see discussions about balance, I see people arguing for different kinds of balance. The classic example of this in the D&D community is comparing "campaign balance" (the character begins weaker/stronger than others and slowly slips to the opposite end of the scale over several levels of play, such as the wizard from every edition prior to 4e) to "round-by-round balance" (the character's options each round are not inherently better or worse than those of other characters of the same level).</p><p></p><p>This can also be seen in the "daily balance" of characters (where some characters are equally good all day while others have declining potential as the day wears on; often achieved through declining daily-refresh resources, like spell slots), with the friction between the two generating the five-minute workday phenomenon.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't think anyone is realistically advocating perfect balance. Perfect balance requires so few variables that any presented choice is inherently illusionary. However, there are very limited times when small doses of perfect balance, such as the old D&D rule that all weapons do 1d6 damage, can have desirable outcomes. If all weapons have the same damage die, then there is no punishment for going with one character concept over another. Want your death cleric to wield a sickle (normally 1d4) instead of a mace (normally 1d6)? You don't miss out on 1-4 extra damage (1 to 2 normally, 1 to 4 on a crit). Or, more dramatically, what if you wanted a lightly-armored dual-dagger using fighter (i.e. a knife-fighter). You don't miss out on 1-8 extra damage.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Balance is an important consideration; it's part of why I review options players want to use at my table. As a player and a DM, these are the kinds of balance that matter the most to me:</p><p></p><p>1) no character is so inherently good that they blow through any challenge the DM designs to be difficult or deadly for their level;</p><p>2) no character is so inherently good that they don't need the rest of the party when facing an encounter meant to challenge a party;</p><p>3) the ability to tailor an encounter to a desired level of difficulty for my players and their characters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MechaPilot, post: 7015775, member: 82779"] I find that perspective to be rather alien. Virtually every time I see discussions about balance, I see people arguing for different kinds of balance. The classic example of this in the D&D community is comparing "campaign balance" (the character begins weaker/stronger than others and slowly slips to the opposite end of the scale over several levels of play, such as the wizard from every edition prior to 4e) to "round-by-round balance" (the character's options each round are not inherently better or worse than those of other characters of the same level). This can also be seen in the "daily balance" of characters (where some characters are equally good all day while others have declining potential as the day wears on; often achieved through declining daily-refresh resources, like spell slots), with the friction between the two generating the five-minute workday phenomenon. I don't think anyone is realistically advocating perfect balance. Perfect balance requires so few variables that any presented choice is inherently illusionary. However, there are very limited times when small doses of perfect balance, such as the old D&D rule that all weapons do 1d6 damage, can have desirable outcomes. If all weapons have the same damage die, then there is no punishment for going with one character concept over another. Want your death cleric to wield a sickle (normally 1d4) instead of a mace (normally 1d6)? You don't miss out on 1-4 extra damage (1 to 2 normally, 1 to 4 on a crit). Or, more dramatically, what if you wanted a lightly-armored dual-dagger using fighter (i.e. a knife-fighter). You don't miss out on 1-8 extra damage. Balance is an important consideration; it's part of why I review options players want to use at my table. As a player and a DM, these are the kinds of balance that matter the most to me: 1) no character is so inherently good that they blow through any challenge the DM designs to be difficult or deadly for their level; 2) no character is so inherently good that they don't need the rest of the party when facing an encounter meant to challenge a party; 3) the ability to tailor an encounter to a desired level of difficulty for my players and their characters. [/QUOTE]
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