Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6640665" data-attributes="member: 37579">No, I'm saying that the assumption is that the wizard is not showered by spells, that they will not find new spells after every adventure. That new spells are very possibly a rare thing for wizards.Perfect balance is impossible. Period. The perfect non-digital zero sum game is Rock Paper Scissors, but it's possible to reliably win that a disproportionate number of times, as can be seen by winning streaks in tournaments. And D&D is far more complicated making it impossible to be a zero sum game, which might actually be undesirable. Thus, the only way for the sorcerer not to be less powerful than the wizard is for it to be more powerful than the wizard. Which doesn't solve the problem, it just changes the discussion to critiquing how the wizard is now underpowered. Because options are always inequal, more choices equals more power. Choice = power. Or rather, choices equal potential power. Thus, it's hard for the sorcerer to every conceivable match the wizard's *potential* power because the customization is unmatchable. Not just because of spells known but the fact they have twice as many subclasses. However, this means the wizard has a range of power. It's possible to make an ineffectual wizard or a god wizard. The power variability is massive compared to almost any other class and makes it extremely hard to balance against. But they have to put the sorcerer on the chart somewhere. Wizards can be very, very effective if they prepare the perfect spells for a situation, and can be prepared for numbers various outcomes. However, you cannot balance the baseline sorcerer against that idealized situation: the most effectively played wizard operating under perfect circumstances. That would just make the sorcerer far more powerful 90% of the time. A rogue that scores a critical sneak multiple times in a day can devastate enemies, but that makes a poor benchmark to balance the fighter's DPR against. Even playtesting makes finding this balance tricky, because you're highly unlikely to have a sorcerer and wizard who are good at the same thing in the party at the same time. You'll always be comparing what actually happened with one class to what might have happened with another. Even if running the same adventure multiple times there'll be too much variability to really judge. Given it's human nature to see the grass being greener on the other side of the fence, it's easy to imagine the class you're not playing being better than the one you had a bad session with.</blockquote>

Verification