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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 1869533" data-attributes="member: 158">Actually, they are, and always have since the game was created. What they're competing for, IMO, is face-time. One of the big problems with Player's Option stuff was that there were elements of certain books (skills and powers have the most if I recall correctly) that far outstripped the other options available. There were certain clear combos that one took if one wanted to have a very powerful character; Fighters took the weapon specialization options in Combat & Tactics, for example, and bulked up the base damage dice and to hits of their weapons. Mages took the elementalist or force mage "kits" from Spells & Magic, and got much and gave little. Rogues.. well, were screwed in those books, I believe. While specifics escape me after years of leaving those books behind, there were clear paths to take that were more unbalancing, and DM's had to be on their toes to keep players from abusing the rules horribly.Even in the 2E Player's handbook, a fighter with his ONE weapon specialization (yes, he was only supposed to have ONE) was very lackluster compared to his bard/mage/cleric/druid friends.What this means is that every group had one or two rules abusers who knew every little trick, and it was built into the rules. Nowadays, even the most egregious Wizards of the Coast Prestige Class still compares favorably to the higher levels of the core classes. No one is so unbearably lopsided in face-time due to abilities their characters lack inherently.Now, there were always solutions to this, the ones I hear often - incompatible play styles (find another group), DM control (DM don't be a pushover), only use core rules (DM's take control!) etc. but these didn't address the advantages of a system were 7th level MEANS 7th level, and not having to balance a 7th level fighter versus an 8th level mage, or a 9th level thief. Both were certainly valid, but for the layman, who wants to put together a 9th level party and bust heads, it offers the advantages of saying, "go home, make 9th level characters with 25-point buy, 15,000 gp of gear, and see me next saturday" - and the DM can reasonably expect a group of characters of similar power level, without looking at something so off-the wall it blows up his session, or one player can do so much the other players sit bored while one person dominates. My 2nd edition games suffered from that a lot; and for that I am grateful to messrs. Cook, Tweet, and Williams.</blockquote>

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