Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf 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 Nest
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!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
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
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Older Editions
Multiclassing in D&D 3rd Edition
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="Alzrius" data-source="post: 7946165" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>Right, but that was supposed to be "balanced" (there's that word again) by how they were locked out of the higher levels of most classes, and even when they hit the cap in one class had to keep dividing their XP proportionally. The "balance" was over the course of the campaign, favoring demihumans earlier on and humans at the higher levels.</p><p></p><p>To go off on a tangent, I know a lot of people hated demihuman level limits, but I always saw them differently than how most other people seemed to. The conventional take on them was usually some variant of "humans are the baseline of what's possible, and everyone else is terrible compared to them." But from an in-character standpoint, if you accepted that humans were the newest race on the proverbial block, then it seemed more like it'd be "these limits were the normal ceiling of what was possible, until humans came along and casually upended conventional wisdom with their insane competence."</p><p></p><p>In other words, humans are the saiyans of the campaign world.</p><p></p><p>Now, you might argue that there's no particular <em>reason</em> for humans to be so much better at everything than demihumans. The problem there is that the game doesn't really speak to the why's and wherefore's of racial differences at all. Elves get a Dexterity bonus and live for several centuries simply because they do. Dwarves have infravision simply because they do. Humans have the ability to surpass what other races can accomplish in terms of martial prowess and wielding magic simply because they do. Presumably the answer is some combination of genetics, magical aptitude, and divine meddling, but there's no real attempt to address that under the game rules. Humans are what they are: better than other races.</p><p></p><p>Of course, there was also the complaint that most campaigns never got to the higher levels anyway, so those "balancing" aspects never came to the fore. But that's not an issue with the game as it is with play-style, similar to how a lot of people didn't like the various limitations that wizards operated under (needing hours or even days to regain all of their spells, losing them if their casting was interrupted, only being able to learn so many spells of a given spell level, etc.). Third Edition removed those, and we subsequently got a slew of complaints about how overpowered casters were now. Similar thing with demihumans and multiclassing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 7946165, member: 8461"] Right, but that was supposed to be "balanced" (there's that word again) by how they were locked out of the higher levels of most classes, and even when they hit the cap in one class had to keep dividing their XP proportionally. The "balance" was over the course of the campaign, favoring demihumans earlier on and humans at the higher levels. To go off on a tangent, I know a lot of people hated demihuman level limits, but I always saw them differently than how most other people seemed to. The conventional take on them was usually some variant of "humans are the baseline of what's possible, and everyone else is terrible compared to them." But from an in-character standpoint, if you accepted that humans were the newest race on the proverbial block, then it seemed more like it'd be "these limits were the normal ceiling of what was possible, until humans came along and casually upended conventional wisdom with their insane competence." In other words, humans are the saiyans of the campaign world. Now, you might argue that there's no particular [i]reason[/i] for humans to be so much better at everything than demihumans. The problem there is that the game doesn't really speak to the why's and wherefore's of racial differences at all. Elves get a Dexterity bonus and live for several centuries simply because they do. Dwarves have infravision simply because they do. Humans have the ability to surpass what other races can accomplish in terms of martial prowess and wielding magic simply because they do. Presumably the answer is some combination of genetics, magical aptitude, and divine meddling, but there's no real attempt to address that under the game rules. Humans are what they are: better than other races. Of course, there was also the complaint that most campaigns never got to the higher levels anyway, so those "balancing" aspects never came to the fore. But that's not an issue with the game as it is with play-style, similar to how a lot of people didn't like the various limitations that wizards operated under (needing hours or even days to regain all of their spells, losing them if their casting was interrupted, only being able to learn so many spells of a given spell level, etc.). Third Edition removed those, and we subsequently got a slew of complaints about how overpowered casters were now. Similar thing with demihumans and multiclassing. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Older Editions
Multiclassing in D&D 3rd Edition
Top