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<blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 4504866" data-attributes="member: 1003">The amount of &quot;random&quot; in any D&amp;D game I've played in (in any edition) always came down to the DM's taste. Each edition had its own &quot;default&quot; level of random, but (like Wayne Lion) I don't know anyone who actually uses the defaults in all respects. Particularly Stat Gen.*There are certainly other differences though in attitude. I was just looking through the Rules Cyclopedia and saw that under the encounter design chapter the section on &quot;balancing&quot; encounters is specifically called an &quot;Optional.&quot; That made me laugh. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; I would love to see a 4E book full of random generator tables with the balance &quot;option&quot; turned &quot;off.&quot;But there are definitely real differences between editions that cannot be hand-waived away by a DM. The frequency/power continuum is certainly an accurate observation (at low levels). In 4E everyone has the same same frequency/power setup.&nbsp; If Necromancer ever made a alt-4E with a 1E feel the Martial classes would have to be all-at-will, all-the-time.&nbsp; It's the only way to really recreate the feel.I've been trying to figure out how to balance Wizards with the other classes without screwing up the &quot;powerful but rare&quot; feeling of magic in previous editions. The little gordion knot I am still trying to untie is how to do that without making assumptions about how many encounters a party will face in a day.&nbsp; If a wizard is limited to X powers/day then too many encounters will leave him useless and the party in deep doo-doo.&nbsp; But too few encounters (or a 5 minute work day) makes the wizard too powerful.&nbsp; But on the third hand, if you balance the wizard strictly per encounter (as 4E has mostly done) then you lose the &quot;rare and magical&quot; part of magic.So far the solution I am working is an encounter-power mechanic for spellcasting that allows a wizard to &quot;over spend&quot; his allotment in exchange for physical exhaustion.&nbsp; He gets one or two spells per combat (of any level he can cast) for free but can pull out all the stops if necessary.&nbsp; It's the magical equivalent of a Fighter Power-Whirlwind Attacking every round until taken down to 0 HP.&nbsp; It keeps magic relatively rare and special, doesn't assume a strict number of encounters per day, and allows for &quot;Boo-yah!&quot;** when necessary.&nbsp; In exchange I've allowed that Wizards can be non-useless melee combatants*** so that they have something reliable to do on rounds they aren't casting a spell._____________________*My current favorite is to use <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/psion/886-card-based-stat-gen-more-equitable-random-stat-gen-method.html" target="_blank">Psion's Stat Deck</a>, deal six pairs in order, allow one swap, +1 to Prime.**One of the lesser known examples of Official Forge Terminology (&quot;OFT&quot;).***Like Gandalf.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Irda Ranger, post: 4504866, member: 1003"] The amount of "random" in any D&D game I've played in (in any edition) always came down to the DM's taste. Each edition had its own "default" level of random, but (like Wayne Lion) I don't know anyone who actually uses the defaults in all respects. Particularly Stat Gen.* There are certainly other differences though in attitude. I was just looking through the Rules Cyclopedia and saw that under the encounter design chapter the section on "balancing" encounters is specifically called an "Optional." That made me laugh. :) I would love to see a 4E book full of random generator tables with the balance "option" turned "off." But there are definitely real differences between editions that cannot be hand-waived away by a DM. The frequency/power continuum is certainly an accurate observation (at low levels). In 4E everyone has the same same frequency/power setup. If Necromancer ever made a alt-4E with a 1E feel the Martial classes would have to be all-at-will, all-the-time. It's the only way to really recreate the feel. I've been trying to figure out how to balance Wizards with the other classes without screwing up the "powerful but rare" feeling of magic in previous editions. The little gordion knot I am still trying to untie is how to do that without making assumptions about how many encounters a party will face in a day. If a wizard is limited to X powers/day then too many encounters will leave him useless and the party in deep doo-doo. But too few encounters (or a 5 minute work day) makes the wizard too powerful. But on the third hand, if you balance the wizard strictly per encounter (as 4E has mostly done) then you lose the "rare and magical" part of magic. So far the solution I am working is an encounter-power mechanic for spellcasting that allows a wizard to "over spend" his allotment in exchange for physical exhaustion. He gets one or two spells per combat (of any level he can cast) for free but can pull out all the stops if necessary. It's the magical equivalent of a Fighter Power-Whirlwind Attacking every round until taken down to 0 HP. It keeps magic relatively rare and special, doesn't assume a strict number of encounters per day, and allows for "[I]Boo-yah![/I]"** when necessary. In exchange I've allowed that Wizards can be non-useless melee combatants*** so that they have something reliable to do on rounds they aren't casting a spell. _____________________ [SIZE="1"]*My current favorite is to use [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/psion/886-card-based-stat-gen-more-equitable-random-stat-gen-method.html"]Psion's Stat Deck[/URL], deal six pairs in order, allow one swap, +1 to Prime. **One of the lesser known examples of Official Forge Terminology ("[U]OFT[/U]"). ***Like Gandalf.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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