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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 4729801" data-attributes="member: 2209">For me the idea is that as a game for a group of people to adventure together the goal is different than in the most common hero story where there is one big protagonist and various supporting characters.For a model of roughly balanced heroes check out Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The Two heroes adventure together and are both super competent in fights. One does not feel overshadowed by the other. Fafhrd is stronger and wields a big heavy weapon while the Mouser is quick with a rapier thin blade. Both dive fully into action and do well.Another Example, Enkidu and Gilgamesh, so evenly matched they wrestle each other to a stand still and are both important in fighting the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba.Take a version of modern heroic myth, superheroes. There are plenty of superhero groups, some are fairly balanced, others are hugely imbalanced. When you have Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern together they are all powerful and can handle super tough foes. Throw in the Green Arrow whose power is being good with a bow and you have him dodging a lot and making wisecracks and other non combat stuff or contortions of story telling to make him keep up with the others as they challenge Apokalypse or Bizarro superman head to head.I would argue that D&D with its predone module adventures is designed to be Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, you want PCs to be involved and relevant and generally up to the combat challenges presented, you don't want for them to be Aquaman in the legion of superheroes where he talks to fish while Black Vulcan flies and hurls lightning going through the same challenge that was not specifically designed around them.Of course I want PCs to give it their all and try and strive to be heroic. I don't want one of them to end up being the hero though and everyone else the supporting cast or have the party split into the heroic supers and the clever, lucky mortal vigilante second string portions of the team.I want the game structure to set up the balance so that the DM and players don't have to worry too much about such power dispairities and can focus on the adventure and their own characters.Players and DMs can provide a satisfying experience where the overshadowing problems of mechanical imbalances are avoided through constant evaluations of game mechanics and the specific challenges the party faces and how they approach them but as both a player and a DM I'd prefer to spend my energy on other aspects of the game.Therefore as a game design goal I want PC balance included so that I don't have to consider it as much when designing or roleplaying a PC or challenges to PCs.</blockquote>

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