Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How much should 5e aim at balance?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Sadrik" data-source="post: 6010392" data-attributes="member: 14506"><p>Sorry quoting from the first page...</p><p></p><p>Good topic. </p><p>I would submit that niche exclusivity and balance are less important than feel.</p><p></p><p>That said, paying homage to balance is important to a certain degree really the argument is how closely do you adhere to balance not if you should attempt to balance at all. My tastes are more aligned with earlier editions (I grew up playing 1e, 2e and later played 3e). For me the sterility of 4e balance felt less organic and more rigid.</p><p></p><p>To make a game fun and enjoyable for a player, characters do not have to be balanced. Instead they have to be in the ballpark. Not because one player will be jealous of another. Instead because the challenges that the DM throws at the players will be more dramatic if all the players can pull their weight.</p><p></p><p>Example story: back in 2e, I ran the slavers modules, and we had a 2e bard in our game. I was a real hard ass about rolling HP at that time. The player had rolled a 1 multiple times for his HP, he died several times and lost CON which lowered his HP further. He was 6th level and only had a handful of HP. This actually adversely affected the game because I had to scale encounters to his HP or he simply ran away. So balance yes, the other players pulled more weight than he did in combat. And it was a design pitfall built into the system. Note he still had fun with his character!</p><p></p><p>So, good game design is key, obvious pitfalls like skill taxes and feat taxes which 3e and 4e had. Arbitrary requirements, that made things difficult to attain, or required revision via rules updates (4e halfling and a staff, 3e polymorph spell or better the 3.5e!)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sadrik, post: 6010392, member: 14506"] Sorry quoting from the first page... Good topic. I would submit that niche exclusivity and balance are less important than feel. That said, paying homage to balance is important to a certain degree really the argument is how closely do you adhere to balance not if you should attempt to balance at all. My tastes are more aligned with earlier editions (I grew up playing 1e, 2e and later played 3e). For me the sterility of 4e balance felt less organic and more rigid. To make a game fun and enjoyable for a player, characters do not have to be balanced. Instead they have to be in the ballpark. Not because one player will be jealous of another. Instead because the challenges that the DM throws at the players will be more dramatic if all the players can pull their weight. Example story: back in 2e, I ran the slavers modules, and we had a 2e bard in our game. I was a real hard ass about rolling HP at that time. The player had rolled a 1 multiple times for his HP, he died several times and lost CON which lowered his HP further. He was 6th level and only had a handful of HP. This actually adversely affected the game because I had to scale encounters to his HP or he simply ran away. So balance yes, the other players pulled more weight than he did in combat. And it was a design pitfall built into the system. Note he still had fun with his character! So, good game design is key, obvious pitfalls like skill taxes and feat taxes which 3e and 4e had. Arbitrary requirements, that made things difficult to attain, or required revision via rules updates (4e halfling and a staff, 3e polymorph spell or better the 3.5e!) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How much should 5e aim at balance?
Top