NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 5060330" data-attributes="member: 3192">4e is right to balance magic items by level.  I think they balance all things by level which is also a good thing.  AD&D does not balance between classes because it is not a simulation game, so items can be distributed across the full spectrum of a level without worry.  I do agree they should have been listed more accurately according to the spectrum of class level they were in, but that would also require a breakdown by every class and then every subclass TSR decided to publish.  This is for every item published.AD&D is balanced by cooperation and class.  The game is intentionally unbalanced in the DM's favor so the players are rewarded for working together to succeed.  Classes are not balanced against each other but according to the challenges each can be expected to face by class level and dungeon level.  Every resource including equipment and magic items are also balanced by class, class level, and dungeon level.  Niche protection (balance) by class is built into the rules, but I don't think AD&D balanced these very well.  This is simply something indicative to Mr. Gygax. I think he really liked magic-users.  A DM does not have to use these rules anyways as they are merely guidelines. AD&D does do okay with this on reflection as it also includes differing XP requirements by class too.  While magic-users had the largest offering in terms of rules in the book they also had the highest XP requirements.  Fighters a had a little less with combat rules, clerics even less, and thieves had the least.  Thieves leveled earliest, but they also had fewer opportunities and fewer rules in their niche with which to engage.</blockquote>

Verification