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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 3256363" data-attributes="member: 3854">First: In my AD&D1 campaigns, I never had a problem with race/class restrictions or race/class level limits. I accepted the rules as they were and never thought about how they affected game balance. The issue just rarely came up. Only a couple (that I can remember off hand) PCs ever rose above ~7th level from low level.But now that I understand “game balance”, and have seen and played with more Players, I see how the restrictions and limits were bad mechanics for balance.I had one Player tell me once, straight-honest, that he was going to play a demi-human because my campaigns never got high level. Another Player admitted that he always played elves in my games because my campaigns never got high level. I suspect another Player of always playing elves for this reason.If a DM’s campaign did regularly reach high levels, then the Players either had to play humans, or someone would find the enjoyment of the game lessened when they stayed 9th level while the other party members were reaching 15th. For classes like the fighter and thief, the difference between 9th and 15th level was not that great (you stop getting hit points at ~9th level). But for classes like clerics and magic-users, the difference between 9th and 15th level was astronomical (5th level spells versus 8th level spells). And imagine the difference between a 15th-level magic-user and a 9th-level fighter in a party together.Imagine you and your friends have motorcycles, and you go joy riding every weekend. Your friends’ cycles have chopper front wheels, big flaming pipes, all kinds of cool accessories that make the riding experience more fun than just riding your stock bike. For the same price tag of their fancy rides, you got a 20-gallon fuel tank. But if your joy riding never burns more than 7 gallons of fuel (within the range of all your friends bikes), your bike isn’t noticeably cooler than a stock bike. Sure, you can have plenty of fun on a stock bike, but you got to admit, chopper wheels and flaming pipes are cool to have.Special abilities, bonuses, and “gimmicks” for demi-humans often made PCs more fun to play (for some people). And if the only [major] mechanical drawback of the race rarely came into play, well, it didn’t really matter. That is what is wrong with AD&D race/class restrictions and level limits.Also, there was a measure of intra-party competition for personal power in some games. [Even Gary Gygax had/has this – he refuses, even to this day, to give out any of his personal characters’ actual game stats because of this sense of competition. He doesn’t want other Players to have knowledge of his PCs’ abilities and weaknesses. (He has stated so on this forum*.)] So, for some Players, in a game that will probably stay at low to mid levels, the demi-human special abilities made their characters more powerful than the “suckers” who stuck with humans, whose only “bonus” was unlimited advancement.Compare the 20-gallon fuel tank to higher speed, better maneuverability, or lighter weight. To the competitive biker, a longer range is worthless for short distance riding.Quasqueton* <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2922198&postcount=71" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2922198&postcount=71</a></blockquote>

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