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<blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 5021076" data-attributes="member: 30022">Intended to be balanced? Sure (...so I voted Yes).There are too many nods to balance to ignore it. For example, wizards have poor attack rolls, can't wear armor, have low hp... but can cast spells. The Vancian magic system. The more powerful magic items are harder to find. Artifacts can &quot;break the rules&quot; in many ways, but have serious drawbacks.Was it balanced? Absolutely not.I think one of the biggest problems with 1e balance was the assumption that low probabilities helps to correct major benefits. An 18/00 Strength is a huge advantage for a fighter, but few fighters will ever have that. Psionics are awesome, but very few PCs will qualify due to the random roll. Your chances of rolling a vorpal blade or hammer of thunderbolts are miniscule.Similarly, I believe there were a few weird areas where balance was thrown out the window to achieve some semblence of historical accuracy. Take the weapons and armors, for example. Gygax seemed to really love this stuff (...check out the Appendix in Unearthed Arcana on pole-arm nomenclature, for example). Hence, I don't think there was the same effort to balance the equipment tables. The classic longsword was almost always the superior option (gotta love that one-handed d8/d12 damage), and this was reflected in the probabilities of acquiring magical weapons. Using a horseman's mace or a hook-fauchard (or 80% of the weapons listed) was an exercise in futility.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lancelot, post: 5021076, member: 30022"] Intended to be balanced? Sure (...so I voted Yes). There are too many nods to balance to ignore it. For example, wizards have poor attack rolls, can't wear armor, have low hp... but can cast spells. The Vancian magic system. The more powerful magic items are harder to find. Artifacts can "break the rules" in many ways, but have serious drawbacks. Was it balanced? Absolutely not. I think one of the biggest problems with 1e balance was the assumption that low probabilities helps to correct major benefits. An 18/00 Strength is a huge advantage for a fighter, but few fighters will ever have that. Psionics are awesome, but very few PCs will qualify due to the random roll. Your chances of rolling a [I]vorpal blade[/I] or [I]hammer of thunderbolts[/I] are miniscule. Similarly, I believe there were a few weird areas where balance was thrown out the window to achieve some semblence of historical accuracy. Take the weapons and armors, for example. Gygax seemed to really love this stuff (...check out the Appendix in [I]Unearthed Arcana[/I] on pole-arm nomenclature, for example). Hence, I don't think there was the same effort to balance the equipment tables. The classic longsword was almost always the superior option (gotta love that one-handed d8/d12 damage), and this was reflected in the probabilities of acquiring magical weapons. Using a horseman's mace or a hook-fauchard (or 80% of the weapons listed) was an exercise in futility. [/QUOTE]

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