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!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aurumvorax" data-source="post: 5060627" data-attributes="member: 87266">I really don't understand the scramble to achieve "balance" in a system is.  We're talking about an RPG here, not a player-vs-player game.  If D&D were indeed a board game like Monopoly then certainly I expect balance.  I'd be pretty pissed if the car got to roll 4d6 every turn but the thimble could skip squares he didn't like etc.  Perhaps I have a different conception of what balanced means but when I hear people discussing it it's usually in relation to the player characters, races, and classes.  Frankly, I couldn't care less about power differences among my fellow players.  So what so-and-so rolled high so he got to be a paladin.  The fact is, early D&D was deadly enough that no character was assured to survive even to level 2.  The power difference between characters and monsters was also less profound compared to 3E so an average character (10s across the board, level 1 fighter) was capable enough to contribute and not twiddle his thumbs.I guess the point of this is that "No" I don't think early editions were "balanced" and I really couldn't care any less.  We were facing the DMs challenges, not each other.  Some times challenges were way over our head, which was uncommon, but in situations like that there was usually an avenue of escape and escape we did.  A lot.This, this, and more of this.  Attributes and dice rolls had their place but the beauty of AD&D was that you were encouraged to improvise.  A simple pot of lantern oil was cheap, easily portable, and could be turned into a deadly weapon that was effective from level 1 to level 20.</blockquote>

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