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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 5475544" data-attributes="member: 3192">I do not believe earlier editions used class levels as both discreet and static quantitative power totals per character once play began.  You know, like DDM where each player picks a group of minis for an agreed total for all players.  "200 points? That's 3 x 30-point goblins, a 45-point woodwych, and, my favorite, a 65-point cobalt blue ferrolisk!"  In d20 and 4E the design aims do include this static and discreet balancing by level for all characters no matter the class or other options. So character level = power level, though 3.5 got quite funky in its multi-classing, class vs. character level and all that.  However, only when class/character level changed did quantifiable power change - a sort of step ladder with no further granularity between. (3E treasure tables withstanding)As I understand earlier versions of D&D, character level was always in flux and never openly enumerated to the player.  This was important as it enabled other members of a group to "power up" a new 1st level PC, something judged by each upon their ongoing mastering of the game.  This was not only for the new guy's benefit, but for everyone in the group.  "Give'r the Rod of Smaxalot, that'll help. Plus we can buy her some better armor before we go toe-to-toe."  This sharing of resources in a cooperative gave allowed newbies to be useful even at low class levels.  And by resources I mean everything quantified and tracked by the referee/DM: equipment, property, contacts, information, even past strategies are all examples.At the start of a new campaign the class levels were (mostly*) balanced according to each one's quantitative <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_game_theory" target="_blank">strategy space</a>.  Swapping in 3E or 4E classes could only feasibly work, if these pre-existing classes were all uniform - something not done in pre-d20 D&D as each class was its own game.  Anyways, most of the later edition class balancing built into the overall character power, the discrete and static quantity, a whole lot the earlier versions did not. I believe this was previously left out on purpose, mainly due to a design philosophy which included each declared attempt by a player causing an alteration to their PCs overall power (as well as the others). They did not want character power to remain static in any case where the player made a choice.*By mostly, I mean their was some power level of the class being changed during character generation, but then this was specific to that PC.  Right now, I'm thinking of the player personalization via textual description of certain class abilities, like spells for instance. This actually altered the functioning of the ability in quantifiable game terms. But as this was part of playing the game, one where the aim was to improve the character, balance was maintained for all new starting PCs. Purchasing initial equipment had a similar effect, but those decisions were (again <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, mostly) not related to specific class level power.</blockquote>

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