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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ZombieRoboNinja" data-source="post: 4022132" data-attributes="member: 54843">Look, it's what levels are for. You can parse it further if you need to - "A level-X defender should be able to adequately defend a party of equal level versus similarly-leveled opponents," or something - but what's the point of having discrete character levels if they don't correspond in some way?If you want to play a "weak" character, make him lower level. Just as if you want to play an all-powerful wizard, or an omnitalented badass like Aragorn, you can make him higher level. But if two characters (of PC classes) are the same level, they should be close in power level.If you want a system where wizards start out weak and end up uber-powered (a la earlier-edition D&D), you can give them an initial level penalty and more XP. If you want a "gritty" game where fighters have "down to earth" powers but spellcasters don't, cap melee classes at level 10. If you want to play Frodo Baggins Goes to Mordor, play as a low-level rogue (or commoner) surrounded by mid- to high-level enemies. The reason this is important? Because otherwise, the system is just being flat-out deceptive, especially to new players. I should be able to open the PHB (and other official books) and pick any class I want and expect to be able to handle equal-level encounters and contribute when my party is in trouble. If I'm playing the guy who dives behind bars, that's a rather advanced roleplaying situation, and I should talk to the DM to either start at a lower level or maybe take up an NPC class (from the DMG, where it's explicitly stated that the class isn't up to snuff for PCs).I imagine your concern is that you want to make a class that still has social skills and maybe some buffs and spells to help his party, but just sucks in a fight. That's easy too. Just take the BALANCED Bard class and give him a -4 to attacks and AC/defenses, and maybe give him a couple extra levels if you want to make him better at the non-combat stuff. It's a lot easier to unbalance a class (for RP purposes) than to balance one.</blockquote>

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