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<blockquote data-quote="Gimby" data-source="post: 5042271" data-attributes="member: 49875">I'd argue the opposite, really.&nbsp; Take 1e Wizards, as a simple example.&nbsp; The balance in them is that they are weak at low levels and strong at high levels, so the balance emerges as its rare for a Wizard to reach high levels.&nbsp; If you are starting your game with characters at 8th level, then this balance point is moot.&nbsp; The Wizard is now just stronger than other choices without its main &quot;balance&quot; feature.&nbsp; Or the Paladin, balanced by scarcity.&nbsp; If you allow point/array stat generation, then a player can always choose to be one (or never choose to be one, if insufficient stats are given).&nbsp; Or the Thief, whose mediocre combat ability is balance by excelling at stealth, trapfinding and lockpicking where your campaign for whatever reasons features none (or little) of the above.&nbsp; And so on.I recognise that this is a simplification, but if you want the balance aspects to come into play with greatest force then you must start characters at first level, must use random stat generation, must provide challenges tailored to the party rather than ones determined by the gameworld and so on.&nbsp; You may ignore all these for a deliberately unbalanced game, but thats diverging from what appears to be the design assumptions.If your character classes are balanced against each other at all points in time given identical levels, then this allows you to diverge from these constraints.&nbsp; Use any stat generation method you like.&nbsp; Start at whatever level you like.&nbsp; Present whatever challenges you like.&nbsp; Use any mix of character classes you like.&nbsp; Doesn't matter, characters will still be balanced against each other and the challenge generation guidelines will probably still give reliable results.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gimby, post: 5042271, member: 49875"] I'd argue the opposite, really. Take 1e Wizards, as a simple example. The balance in them is that they are weak at low levels and strong at high levels, so the balance emerges as its rare for a Wizard to reach high levels. If you are starting your game with characters at 8th level, then this balance point is moot. The Wizard is now just stronger than other choices without its main "balance" feature. Or the Paladin, balanced by scarcity. If you allow point/array stat generation, then a player can always choose to be one (or never choose to be one, if insufficient stats are given). Or the Thief, whose mediocre combat ability is balance by excelling at stealth, trapfinding and lockpicking where your campaign for whatever reasons features none (or little) of the above. And so on. I recognise that this is a simplification, but if you want the balance aspects to come into play with greatest force then you must start characters at first level, must use random stat generation, must provide challenges tailored to the party rather than ones determined by the gameworld and so on. You may ignore all these for a deliberately unbalanced game, but thats diverging from what appears to be the design assumptions. If your character classes are balanced against each other at all points in time given identical levels, then this allows you to diverge from these constraints. Use any stat generation method you like. Start at whatever level you like. Present whatever challenges you like. Use any mix of character classes you like. Doesn't matter, characters will still be balanced against each other and the challenge generation guidelines will probably still give reliable results. [/QUOTE]

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