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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1331679" data-attributes="member: 177">That's thoroughly untrue.&nbsp; Let's look at the D&amp;D Ranger for a moment, and how it changed moving from 3e to 3.5e...The 3e ranger was &quot;front loaded&quot; - it got lots of useful combat stuff at first level, less later on.&nbsp; So, to balance it better, they dropped the hit die down, shifted some abilities to later levels, and tightened up thir armor choices a bit.But then, they added skill points.&nbsp; But outside of an occasional Tumble or Concentration check, skills are rarely used in combat.&nbsp; Ergo, the addition of the skill points was not intended to balance them in combat, but instead to give them some more abilites outside of combat to compensate for lost combat effectiveness.Combat balance is the easiest to quantify, so it is the one that folks look at most.&nbsp; However, there's been quite a reasonable attempt to use a broad definition of &quot;balance&quot;.&nbsp; They've tried to make it so that any particular character choice will be as effective as any other overall, in a long and varied campaign.&nbsp; The Fighter is the master of martial prowess.&nbsp; The Bard is not.&nbsp; To compensate, the bard has many skill points and access to social skills.&nbsp; The bard is not intended to be terribly effective in combat.&nbsp; He's only supposed to hold his own, so that he can later on shine in a social encounter.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 1331679, member: 177"] That's thoroughly untrue. Let's look at the D&D Ranger for a moment, and how it changed moving from 3e to 3.5e... The 3e ranger was "front loaded" - it got lots of useful combat stuff at first level, less later on. So, to balance it better, they dropped the hit die down, shifted some abilities to later levels, and tightened up thir armor choices a bit. But then, they added skill points. But outside of an occasional Tumble or Concentration check, skills are rarely used in combat. Ergo, the addition of the skill points was not intended to balance them in combat, but instead to give them some more abilites outside of combat to compensate for lost combat effectiveness. Combat balance is the easiest to quantify, so it is the one that folks look at most. However, there's been quite a reasonable attempt to use a broad definition of "balance". They've tried to make it so that any particular character choice will be as effective as any other overall, in a long and varied campaign. The Fighter is the master of martial prowess. The Bard is not. To compensate, the bard has many skill points and access to social skills. The bard is not intended to be terribly effective in combat. He's only supposed to hold his own, so that he can later on shine in a social encounter. [/QUOTE]

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