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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 5820316" data-attributes="member: 23240">I don't think it's possible to achieve good balance without serious constraints on character, encounter and adventure structure - if the balance is static.What is the alternative? Dynamic balance - one that uses a feedback. A system that reacts to character performance and sets up difficulties accordingly. It may be done by the mechanics working this way automatically, or by giving the GM tools to easily rebalance things on the fly and guidelines on when to do that.Let's assume the system has low lethality, but reasonable chance of failure. In other words, in most combats it's not PC lives that is at stake, but something else they see as important. And some of the fights (somewhere between 1 in 3 to 1 in 5) are lost.In such setup, it would be possible to let PCs recover some kind of resource (surges, daily powers or something like that) when they lose and subtly ramp up difficulty (eg. by increasing monster crit ranges or monster power recovery ranges) when they keep winning. By introducing this kind of negative feedback, the system becomes self-balancing. And player actions affect the balance point. CaW players won't trivialize all encounters by strategy, but they can aim for long winning streaks. They still have the enjoyment of outwitting the opposition, but each victory makes the next one harder to achieve; at some point it's only their strategy and creativity that can keep them going, with all other factors stacked against them.CaS players get their interesting, dramatic encounters, no matter how good they are tactically, because the encounters balance themselves to provide challenge without overpowering.Of course, this approach is not perfect. For some players it may feel metagame and artificial. But I feel it solves a lot of problems with balance without putting too much work on the GM and has a potential of keeping various types of players happy.</blockquote>

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