D&D 5E Spellcasters and Balance in 5e: A Poll

[Maxperson]

Thieves regularly take women's wallets out of their purses in Europe. They do steal the whole purse too.

IF they do that, then they saw her put the wallet in the specific side pocket or something similar and KNOW where the wallet is. They don't just randomly always get the wallet.

 

[ECMO3]

Dude. There's a reason that they are called Cutpurses and Purse Snatchers. And pickPOCKETS. It's because it describes how they are able to steal those things. Thieves do not routinely pull specific items out of other people purses without knowing where those things are.

Yes they do. Here is a link talking about thieves, and preventing them. I will quote from it, referring to stealing a wallet FROM another container:

"You can be at a light, and someone can snatch it, or a pickpocket can unzip it and take your wallet without you even realizing.”

Your outfit is ugly — and will get you robbed, too

Summer=crowds. Protect your stuff. We @ 24 r not the fashion police but fanny packs present a special case. pic.twitter.com/OuyuaTL33U — NYPD 24th Precinct (@NYPD24Pct) July 22, 2015 New York’s lat…

nypost.com

I guess you know better than them

 

[Stalker0]

For Pete's sake, take the pickpocket discussion to another thread. The dead horse is still dead, go beat it somewhere else.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes they do. Here is a link talking about thieves, and preventing them. I will quote from it, referring to stealing a wallet FROM another container:

"You can be at a light, and someone can snatch it, or a pickpocket can unzip it and take your wallet without you even realizing.”

Your outfit is ugly — and will get you robbed, too

Summer=crowds. Protect your stuff. We @ 24 r not the fashion police but fanny packs present a special case. pic.twitter.com/OuyuaTL33U — NYPD 24th Precinct (@NYPD24Pct) July 22, 2015 New York’s lat…

nypost.com

I guess you know better than them

ROFL Now you're moving the goal posts from purses, to fanny packs which are barely bigger than the wallet.

Here, read this.

Purseology 101 (How purses are picked) – Thiefhunters in Paradise

bobarno.com

Note how it recommends putting the wallet at the bottom of the purse. It's almost as if the pickpocket would have trouble if there were other items in there and he didn't know where the wallet is. Also note how much of the advice is in avoiding situations where the would be pickpocket would have time to search the purse and find the wallet, indicating that the pickpocket can't just reach in and snag it like you imagine.

 

[Maxperson]

For Pete's sake, take the pickpocket discussion to another thread. The dead horse is still dead, go beat it somewhere else.

You're right. I can lead the horse to water... I'll stop.

 

[Don Durito]

Is a spell component pouch just full of loose crap though? I always imagined it sectioned off like a tacklebox.

Otherwise, every wizard is suddenly a bumbler like Paladine.

Yuck. There's bat guano on everything.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

So balance =/= balance, and that's the accepted definition. If there's a range, then it's not balanced. Period. Try balancing a pencil on your finger. If it's not equal on both sides, it will fall because it's NOT BALANCED. Balance = equal.

No, it doesn't, and it literally never has. When you "balance" a chemical equation, you don't make it so that both sides are literally identical things--you make it so the charges and masses are equivalent, but redistributed. When you "balance" a checkbook, you don't ensure that the money paid is precisely equal to the money present, you simply make sure that every payment is covered. When you "balance" a set of scales, you don't put literally identical objects on both dishes, you put an object to be examined and the pre-weighted objects you measure with until you get something immesurably different from true equilibrium, but the whole point is that you're comparing two things that are different, not identical. Even in algebra, where you are trying to generate exact equalities, the things involved need to (at the very least) be different in form for the result to be relevant. "Balancing" where you end up with "2=2" is trivial, and tells you nothing (with the possible exception that you started from two equations that were not linearly independent...which still tells you nothing you couldn't have known before).

You can insist that "balance = equal" all you like. Dictionaries, textbooks, and the general public all disagree with you. And with that, I'm absolutely, positively done discussing the topic, because there is literally no point in having a debate with you if you're going to dogmatically insist that a word means a thing that it simply does not mean.

 

[Don Durito]

 

[Maxperson]

No, it doesn't, and it literally never has. When you "balance" a chemical equation, you don't make it so that both sides are literally identical things--you make it so the charges and masses are equivalent, but redistributed.

"An equation is balanced when the same number of each element is represented on the reactant and product sides. Equations must be balanced to accurately reflect the law of conservation of matter."

So the sides have precisely equal numbers of each element.

When you "balance" a checkbook, you don't ensure that the money paid is precisely equal to the money present, you simply make sure that every payment is covered.

When you balance a checkbook, you make sure that the amount paid is precisely equal to the amount taken out of your bank account.

When you "balance" a set of scales, you don't put literally identical objects on both dishes, you put an object to be examined and the pre-weighted objects you measure with until you get something immesurably different from true equilibrium, but the whole point is that you're comparing two things that are different, not identical.

And yet both sides must have precisely equal weight or it's not balanced.

Even in algebra, where you are trying to generate exact equalities, the things involved need to (at the very least) be different in form for the result to be relevant. "Balancing" where you end up with "2=2" is trivial, and tells you nothing (with the possible exception that you started from two equations that were not linearly independent...which still tells you nothing you couldn't have known before).

And you still end up with precisely equal numbers on both sides

You can insist that "balance = equal" all you like.

Every last example you provided involves things being precisely equal in some manner. Unlike classes in any edition of the game. None of the examples you gave indicate that balance = a range, because "a range" is not balanced.

And with that, I'm absolutely, positively done discussing the topic, because there is literally no point in having a debate with you if you're going to dogmatically insist that a word means a thing that it simply does not mean.

I'm not, though. I'm insisting that it means what it means..................balanced. A range is not balanced. A range can only be an acceptable or unacceptable amount of imbalance.

Balanced in an RPG simply means that they've gotten the range of imbalance close enough that you think it's good.

 

[MichaelSomething]

You aren't alone. Half my gaming group gets frustrated over having too many options...and the other half is frustrated because the first half takes too long. I don't know why the players feel like every action needs to be The Absolute Best Action Possible^TM every single round of every single battle, but they do. Boy do they ever. More options means more pressure, which translates to more frustration for all involved.

Sorry for the tangent, but does anyone know how to get their players to stop stressing about optimization? I know it can be done, plenty of people have written testimonies about it. But if there's a seminar out there called, "Optimization Sucks: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Game" or something, I really want to sign up.

Monsters gain +1 to all damage rolls (or some other benefit) for each real life minute that passes during player turns.