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races of destiny --has D&D 3.5 jumped the shark?
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<blockquote data-quote="Haffrung Helleyes" data-source="post: 1916602" data-attributes="member: 1068"><p><strong>oh please</strong></p><p></p><p>Get off your high horse, Ari.</p><p>I don't particularly care what you think of me, or my posts. It's obvious from the size of this thread that there are plenty of gamers here who share my opinion on the subject. You are not the grand arbiter of who gets taken seriously on EnWorld and who does not.</p><p></p><p>And there _is_ a universal yardstick of balance in 3E, and as a game designer I am sure you know it well.</p><p></p><p>In 3E, the yardstick of balance is that when a group of 4 PCs -- a Fighter, a Wizard, a Rogue, and a Cleric -- go on an adventure, on the whole they are equally able to contribute towards resolving that adventure successfullly. All the other classes are variations on this theme.</p><p></p><p>The biggest problem with the Frenzied Berserker is exactly what you mention -- that it's increased combat ability is 'balanced' by increasing the danger not to it, but to the other PCs.</p><p></p><p>A four member party with a frenzied berserker substituted for the fighter may be balanced with respect to the monsters, but the PCs are no longer balanced with respect to each other. The Frenzied berserker's increased combat effectiveness is balanced with a penalty which applies to the other PCs, not to the Frenzied Berserker.</p><p></p><p>And I think the decision to allow the Frenzied Berserker to ignore infinite amounts of HP damage while in a frenzy was questionable. </p><p></p><p>Besides being imbalanced, the Frenzied Berserker is also a prestige class which requires heavy metagaming. Because D&D is a game played among friends, the other PCs are expected to accept the fact that the Frenzied Berserker tries to kill them in a blind rage from time to time. This simply isn't believable. What would you do if one of your coworkers tried to murder you every few weeks? Would you go out to lunch with them?</p><p></p><p>Ken</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Haffrung Helleyes, post: 1916602, member: 1068"] [b]oh please[/b] Get off your high horse, Ari. I don't particularly care what you think of me, or my posts. It's obvious from the size of this thread that there are plenty of gamers here who share my opinion on the subject. You are not the grand arbiter of who gets taken seriously on EnWorld and who does not. And there _is_ a universal yardstick of balance in 3E, and as a game designer I am sure you know it well. In 3E, the yardstick of balance is that when a group of 4 PCs -- a Fighter, a Wizard, a Rogue, and a Cleric -- go on an adventure, on the whole they are equally able to contribute towards resolving that adventure successfullly. All the other classes are variations on this theme. The biggest problem with the Frenzied Berserker is exactly what you mention -- that it's increased combat ability is 'balanced' by increasing the danger not to it, but to the other PCs. A four member party with a frenzied berserker substituted for the fighter may be balanced with respect to the monsters, but the PCs are no longer balanced with respect to each other. The Frenzied berserker's increased combat effectiveness is balanced with a penalty which applies to the other PCs, not to the Frenzied Berserker. And I think the decision to allow the Frenzied Berserker to ignore infinite amounts of HP damage while in a frenzy was questionable. Besides being imbalanced, the Frenzied Berserker is also a prestige class which requires heavy metagaming. Because D&D is a game played among friends, the other PCs are expected to accept the fact that the Frenzied Berserker tries to kill them in a blind rage from time to time. This simply isn't believable. What would you do if one of your coworkers tried to murder you every few weeks? Would you go out to lunch with them? Ken [/QUOTE]
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