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<blockquote data-quote="GVDammerung" data-source="post: 2607812" data-attributes="member: 33060">I disagree.&nbsp; If the game were being administered by a computer program, I would agree.&nbsp; With a flesh and blood DM, however, the DM can, and I think should, easily adjust matters to give everyone an opportunity to shine.It is mixing metaphors but an &quot;unbalanced&quot; D&amp;D party may yet function very satisfactorily when viewed from the perspective of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer type game.&nbsp; There is one slayer - Buffy.&nbsp; The show and game are named after her.&nbsp; This does not mean, however, that Willow and players playing Willow-type characters or even Xander and Xander-like characters or Giles and Giles-like characters etc. cannot have their storylines and moments to regularly shine.D&amp;D involves troupe play.&nbsp; The whole of the party should be greater than the sum of the parts.&nbsp; I see an over emphasis on balance as forgetting this, as if each character must have exactly 25% of the spotlight each and every minute and any thing more or less is wrong.&nbsp; Not so.&nbsp; Some adventures will have a specific character focus but others will move that focus around. When this is accepted, &quot;balance&quot; becomes far less an issue.&nbsp; Balance taken to an extreme is entropy because it will substitute an artificial &quot;equality&quot; for the verisimiltude of a more interesting inequality, actually a shifting inequality that will favor some PCs more than others from one adventure to the other just depending.&nbsp; So long as no one is permanently left to only hold the horses reigns, I think the quest for balance derives from too much time in front of the Xbox.&nbsp; IMO, the D&amp;D experience should be more like a novel, teleplay or movie and less like Playstation.IMO</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GVDammerung, post: 2607812, member: 33060"] I disagree. If the game were being administered by a computer program, I would agree. With a flesh and blood DM, however, the DM can, and I think should, easily adjust matters to give everyone an opportunity to shine. It is mixing metaphors but an "unbalanced" D&D party may yet function very satisfactorily when viewed from the perspective of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer type game. There is one slayer - Buffy. The show and game are named after her. This does not mean, however, that Willow and players playing Willow-type characters or even Xander and Xander-like characters or Giles and Giles-like characters etc. cannot have their storylines and moments to regularly shine. D&D involves troupe play. The whole of the party should be greater than the sum of the parts. I see an over emphasis on balance as forgetting this, as if each character must have exactly 25% of the spotlight each and every minute and any thing more or less is wrong. Not so. Some adventures will have a specific character focus but others will move that focus around. When this is accepted, "balance" becomes far less an issue. Balance taken to an extreme is entropy because it will substitute an artificial "equality" for the verisimiltude of a more interesting inequality, actually a shifting inequality that will favor some PCs more than others from one adventure to the other just depending. So long as no one is permanently left to only hold the horses reigns, I think the quest for balance derives from too much time in front of the Xbox. IMO, the D&D experience should be more like a novel, teleplay or movie and less like Playstation. IMO [/QUOTE]

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