Is eberron balanced?(for those who have read the book)

[Ashrem Bayle]

Isn't that true for most gameworlds? It's just that "as likely" usually equals "almost never." I take it that Eberron ups the likelyhood?

In Eberron, color evidently has no (or very little) relation to alignment where dragons are concerned.

 

[Aaron2]

My point is though that GAMERS shouldn't be concerned with OGC this and OGC that. Yes it is nice but how does it affect us in the big picture? Very little because we can use ALL OF IT however we want to use it! If I want to port Dragonmarks to a Realms game, NOTHING can stop me.

Its a big deal if your planning on posting characters, monsters or house rules on your web page. Or if you hope that other companies support the setting. If a product comes out that is not open, I'll be much less interested in it because I don't want to worry about the hassles.


Aaron

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I find most people who complain about WOTC not OGCing all their rules to be ticked because they can't get the product for free... funk that noise.

I couldn't care less about getting anything for free. In the past couple of weeks, I've bought CW & CD, Grim Tales, and the Midnight Campaign Setting, plus several (non-DRM'd ) PDFs. The only time I use the free SRD is when I need to look up something when I'm posting here from work.

Saying gamers "shouldn't be concerned with OGC this and OGC that" is foolish and short-sighted, or that computer users shouldn't care about software licensing issues. OGC revitalized D&D and the hobby as a whole has benefited immensely. That revitalization was due in large part to the third-party publishers putting out supporting material that worked with the OGC rules used in the de facto setting.

If a new setting uses rules that are not OGC, that makes it harder for 3rd party publishers to put out material that will work with it and the established, most widely used published setting, and that makes them more likely to support only 'stock' D&D. This doesn't benefit publishers who might sell more product, it doesn't benefit consumers who use the Eberron setting, and it doesn't benefit WotC, who would like to sell tons and tons of the campaign book and supplemental stuff. I'm sure they'd love to sell a 'Complete Warforged' down the line at $29.95 a pop.

Don't assume that those of us capable of looking down the road and trying to nurture a hobby we've supported for 25 years are freeloaders.

 

[Acid_crash]

Yes, this book is balanced. The Almighty One has declared it so.

"Why is that, your worshipfulness?" a lowly peasant asks his Almighty Lord about the Balance within Eberron.

The Almighty One looks down at his peasant, smiles, and speaks with a powerful commanding voice, "My child, the book Eberron, like ALL other roleplaying game books, is Balanced because....there is NO True balance in roleplaying games. It is wiser to just play the game how you want than argue over the semantics of what is right or wrong. Do you not see child, that to argue over something as trivial as game balance in a roleplaying game is to waste your breath and life and you could spend that time Playing the game instead of complaining about something that CAN NOT be fixed by ANYBODY."

The peasant looks up in awe, for the concept of game balance is now within his grasp. Play the game how I want, the peasant thinks to himself. And if I don't like something, the Almighty One has given me permission to change it however I want.

"Thank you Lord, for your wisdom is grand and your foresight is Beyond my simple understanding."

"Go, my child, and have many days of wonderful gaming and do what you will with the game to make it FUN for YOU."

The Almighty One leaves the peasant, and the peasant goes to gather his friends to enjoy the game rather than argue over pointless efforts of balance.

 

[Voadam]

Yes, this book is balanced. The Almighty One has declared it so.

"Why is that, your worshipfulness?" a lowly peasant asks his Almighty Lord about the Balance within Eberron.

The Almighty One looks down at his peasant, smiles, and speaks with a powerful commanding voice, "My child, the book Eberron, like ALL other roleplaying game books, is Balanced because....there is NO True balance in roleplaying games. It is wiser to just play the game how you want than argue over the semantics of what is right or wrong. Do you not see child, that to argue over something as trivial as game balance in a roleplaying game is to waste your breath and life and you could spend that time Playing the game instead of complaining about something that CAN NOT be fixed by ANYBODY."

The peasant looks up in awe, for the concept of game balance is now within his grasp. Play the game how I want, the peasant thinks to himself. And if I don't like something, the Almighty One has given me permission to change it however I want.

So there is no balance difference say between RIFTS and D&D that is worth noting? Which game you choose will not affect the relative power of PCs given the base assumptions and options of the games as written? Supplements can not possibly be evaluated as to the significance of their power creep or balanced mechanics?

Saying you can change things you do not like is irrelevant to evaluating balance. Balance is an evaluation of the material as it is presented. The desire for balanced mechanics is so that you do not have to modify the new mechanics but can use them out of the box without greatly disrupting your game.

 

[Gargoyle]

Hi, everyone! Just thought I'd pop in.

Hiya Henry. Just dropping by myself. I'm eager to take part in this discussion and others about Eberron, but haven't found it yet in NC. It sounds interesting.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

So there is no balance difference say between RIFTS and D&D that is worth noting? Which game you choose will not affect the relative power of PCs given the base assumptions and options of the games as written? Supplements can not possibly be evaluated as to the significance of their power creep or balanced mechanics?

Saying you can change things you do not like is irrelevant to evaluating balance. Balance is an evaluation of the material as it is presented. The desire for balanced mechanics is so that you do not have to modify the new mechanics but can use them out of the box without greatly disrupting your game.

No kidding. I am a LAZY DM. I don't like preparing or doing work to run my game. I run most of it either from prepared adventures that I buy, or off the top of my head with no preperation.

I ran Rifts for the longest time, and I can say that I am prone to the idea of "you want to be something from a book? Sure, what the hell, it might be interesting." Then, I ran into cases where a monster could kill one PC in a single hit, and it would take about 300 shots to kill another one. If I used an area of effect attack, half the party would die and the other half would say "can't they do more damage than that, this is too easy."

I ran into the same problem in 2nd Edition D&D, with one character being a race from some book with pluses to all his stats (or at least +4 to strength or something silly like that) with an overpowered kit who managed to catch me at the wrong moment and convinced me to give him an overpowered magic item because I didn't see how powerful it would make them.

Part of the beauty of 3rd Ed IS Game Balance. Because WOTC does a decent enough job of keeping close to the same power level with everything they make. Sure, there are exceptions, but they aren't normally enough to make anyone feel useless in the group (unlike in my 2nd edition party). Which, incidently, is why I don't give a crap about OGL and 3rd party book support, because the stuff is so varied in power levels that, even though there IS good material in some of the books, I actually have to see if it is good or not, making all the time I saved due to 3rd Ed wasted as I now have to check over every feat and every spell that every character brings in and GUESS whether it is too powerful or not, then remove them from people's characters and make them make new choices when I find out I was wrong. Thus, retconing history in my game and ruining role playing.

So, yes, there *IS* such thing as game balance, and I hope Eberron has it, I can't tell you though, because I don't have the book, it won't be released anywhere here until Friday.

Majoru Oakheart

 

[~Johnny~]

I'm going to withhold judgment on balance until I actually play the game, but nothing I've seen concerns me. I think Wizards of the Coast has put more time into designing playtesting this product than practically anything they've released in the past couple of years.

For folks interested in learning more about the Eberron campaign setting, or who have the book and are hungry for more, I've just updated the Eberron Journalhttp://www.coveworld.net/eberron/index2.html.

If you're about to run a game, either as a player or a DM, you might want to check out some of these sample NPCs.

The updated Designer Notes feature dozens of pages worth of additional information about the setting. Eberron designer Keith Baker is a prolific poster on the WotC message boards, and no Eberron DM will want to miss his analysis of everything from Last War politics to lost goblin empires.

Finally, the book features better editing than most recent WotC and d20 products, but some errors have slipped through. Since errata probably won't be officially compiled for a while, click here for a growing list of designer responses to player questions.​

I know that wasn't exactly on-topc, but I didn't feel it was worth its own thread. Happy gaming, everybody!

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'm going to withhold judgment on balance until I actually play the game, but nothing I've seen concerns me. I think Wizards of the Coast has put more time into designing playtesting this product than practically anything they've released in the past couple of years.

Hey, that would explain why everything else they've released lately has been so poorly playtested and edited! Eberron's been soaking up all the manpower at WotC R&D. Damn you Eberron! Damn you to hell! I blame you for page XX!

 

[Kesh]

Just picked up the book today. So far, I don't see any glaring balance problems. I think it's going to work out just fine.