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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WheresMyD20" data-source="post: 5816659" data-attributes="member: 60772">AD&D had four classes: cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief.  It also had 5 subclasses: druid (cleric), paladin (fighter), ranger (fighter), illusionist (magic-user), assassin (thief).A subclass in 1e essentially fills the same role as the class that it's based off of.  That makes sub-classes harder to balance because you need to ensure that they are roughly equivalent to the main class.  The four main classes themselves don't necessarily need to be balanced as carefully against each other since they all play different roles and all of them are needed to have a successful party, regardless if you are playing a high level or low level game.In 1e, think of the 4 main classes as the positions on the team and the sub-classes as variations on how those positions get played.  AD&D certainly was designed around the same 4-role party as "basic" D&D.  That's why they're called "sub-classes" and not simply "classes".The point I've been making is that balance between the main classes like fighters and magic-users isn't all that important as long as their classes are both needed in a party.  I've already stated my position that it's the classes that fulfill similar roles (called "sub-classes" in 1e): fighter vs barbarian, magic-user vs illusionist, thief vs assassin, are the ones that require more careful balancing.Note:  There are also two "oddball" classes in 1e: monk and bard.  The monk was a holdover from OD&D supplement 2 and Gygax listed it last, out of alphabetical order, since it really didn't "fit in".  The bard was put in an appendix and is a fighter/thief/druid triple-class.  Neither of these classes really fit into the cleric/fighter/magic-user/thief structure of the game, which is why they have unusual placement.  I don't know Gygax's though process on these two classes, but he did state that he wished that he left the monk out of the PHB and left it for Oriental Adventures.  In fact, in OA, he recommended that the monk presented in the PHB be ignored.</blockquote>

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