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<blockquote data-quote="NewJeffCT" data-source="post: 5320046" data-attributes="member: 10784">I found just the opposite with the older editions - PCs were unbalanced as written.&nbsp; You were just more powerful out of the box if you chose non-human races and multi-classed. What made it fun was that we were younger and didn't care so much about fairness - and, we all knew D&amp;D because we had grown up playing it.&nbsp; And, because we knew 1E/2E so well, it was easier for the DM to accommodate the wildly divergent power levels in game.&nbsp; As I stated earlier, witout magic items, the multi-class elves (or dwarves) were far more powerful than straight classed humans with the same overall XP.&nbsp; The DM would need to give the weaker characters special situations in order to level the playing field - be it special encoutners, extra magic items, etc.&nbsp; However, even then, the better race/class combos still excelled at the table.With 3E/3.5E, I found characters to be more reasonably balanced than prior editions, both in theory and in practice.&nbsp; I was involved in two long term campaigns – one with 3E, and one with 3.5.&nbsp; The 3E campaign was as a player, while 3.5 was as DM.&nbsp; There really was nobody that took a backseat to the rest of the group in terms of how powerful their characters were in game.&nbsp; Sure, there were situations where somebody did not do well for a particular encounter, but over the course of the campaign, everybody was in the ballpark in terms of overall power level.Where 3E and 3.5 have problems is when somebody would try to build a character towards a particular prestige class or special class or template or whatnot.&nbsp; Then, things can get unbalanced quickly.&nbsp; But, you could have had similar in 2E with kits instead of prestige classes (elf bladesinger anybody?)3.5 was also a ton of work for me as a DM – part of which I spent making sure each PC would have their moments to shineI have not played or DM’d 4E enough to comment enough on it, other than saying it seems much easier to DM than 3.5.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="NewJeffCT, post: 5320046, member: 10784"] I found just the opposite with the older editions - PCs were unbalanced as written. You were just more powerful out of the box if you chose non-human races and multi-classed. What made it fun was that we were younger and didn't care so much about fairness - and, we all knew D&D because we had grown up playing it. And, because we knew 1E/2E so well, it was easier for the DM to accommodate the wildly divergent power levels in game. As I stated earlier, witout magic items, the multi-class elves (or dwarves) were far more powerful than straight classed humans with the same overall XP. The DM would need to give the weaker characters special situations in order to level the playing field - be it special encoutners, extra magic items, etc. However, even then, the better race/class combos still excelled at the table. With 3E/3.5E, I found characters to be more reasonably balanced than prior editions, both in theory and in practice. I was involved in two long term campaigns – one with 3E, and one with 3.5. The 3E campaign was as a player, while 3.5 was as DM. There really was nobody that took a backseat to the rest of the group in terms of how powerful their characters were in game. Sure, there were situations where somebody did not do well for a particular encounter, but over the course of the campaign, everybody was in the ballpark in terms of overall power level. Where 3E and 3.5 have problems is when somebody would try to build a character towards a particular prestige class or special class or template or whatnot. Then, things can get unbalanced quickly. But, you could have had similar in 2E with kits instead of prestige classes (elf bladesinger anybody?) 3.5 was also a ton of work for me as a DM – part of which I spent making sure each PC would have their moments to shine I have not played or DM’d 4E enough to comment enough on it, other than saying it seems much easier to DM than 3.5. [/QUOTE]

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