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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Surgoshan" data-source="post: 4134339" data-attributes="member: 61205">Say you have a hypothetical class that can do a little bit of everything.  In the interest of balance, you make it so that it doesn't advance in all of those things as quickly as a specialist class (fighter or wizard).  The simple analogy would be someone trying to keep all of his skills at the same level instead of just putting points into taunt, bluff, and climb.  The end result is that although he can do a whole lot of stuff, he can't do any of it as well as people who have gone ahead and specialized.  The cleric buffs and heals better, the fighter fights better, the wizard has much better offensive spells, etc.  The result is a class that, after the first few levels, is completely outclassed in all areas, and is completely unfun to play.So to make it fun you make it so that it can do things well.  This means that it advances in power faster in all of its areas, because you still want a generalist.  This means that his spells get better, his fighting gets better, etc.  However, in order for it to not be consistently and completely outshone by the other members of the party your generalist has to be on a level with them.  This means that you have a powerful caster who can also wade into melee.  That's really it; a true generalist who is balanced will suck, and if he doesn't suck then he isn't balanced and is way over powered.  Of course, it's reasonable to argue that all you have to do is make him just a little worse at everything.  Except that he'll still be overpowered until you make him enough worse enough at everything that he's not outshining everyone.  Because with vancian spellcasting, the generalist gets to choose only his best spells, cast them once per battle, and then wade into melee.  The specialist, trying to cover his bases, will have to spread out his spells because that's all he can do.  He can't fight, so his spell list has to be broad enough to cover the contingencies.  So even though the generalist is a little less powerful, the fact that his magic is focused as a buttress to his fighting means that it's more effective.  Similarly, the specialist fighter doesn't have the magical abilities and so although his fighting will be technically better, it will lack the support that the supposedly inferior generalist can rely on.  But once you make the generalist poor enough across the board that he seems equal... you'll find him being rapidly outstripped by his specialist companions.  Keeping the generalist weaker involves finding a sweet spot of comparable ability related to the specialists.The generalist will end up being on a par at some levels, overpowerful at others, and eventually outclassed.  The druidzilla has avoided the final problem, but the result is that he starts out equal and then rapidly outpaces everyone else.</blockquote>

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