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<blockquote data-quote="Christopher Helton" data-source="post: 7693138" data-attributes="member: 6804772">There are always those abilities that aren't really quantifiable, however. Intelligence. Wisdom. Knowledge. Artistic ability. Measuring the amount of damage that one thing does and comparing it to the damage that another thing does is quantifiable, but it ultimately is a small part of things to only look at combat.An elf can see in the darkness. A dwarf can detect the angle of passages. How do you quantify those to &quot;balance&quot; them out against other special abilities? Just because two species, or classes, have the same number of special abilities it doesn't make them equivalent to each other.Balance is a pointless pursuit, particularly when it isn't actually isn't actually what people are looking for when they say &quot;balance.&quot; More often they mean &quot;spotlight time&quot; which is even more vague.A part of the reason for the randomness in early editions, and particularly in something like OD&amp;D is to give a somewhat even footing to characters. Hit points are a great equalizer, when everyone has fairly close to the same amounts. A 1st level magic-user with 1d6 hit dice in a dungeon isn't that less squishy than the fighter with 1d6+1 hit dice, and when everything deals the same damage, a fireball isn't that much more deadly than a sword.This is why it is important to know about early games. Games aren't technology, they don't become obsolete. Just being newer doesn't make something automatically better. Andy Warhol's works aren't better than Picasso's just because he made them more recently.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Christopher Helton, post: 7693138, member: 6804772"] There are always those abilities that aren't really quantifiable, however. Intelligence. Wisdom. Knowledge. Artistic ability. Measuring the amount of damage that one thing does and comparing it to the damage that another thing does is quantifiable, but it ultimately is a small part of things to only look at combat. An elf can see in the darkness. A dwarf can detect the angle of passages. How do you quantify those to "balance" them out against other special abilities? Just because two species, or classes, have the same number of special abilities it doesn't make them equivalent to each other. Balance is a pointless pursuit, particularly when it isn't actually isn't actually what people are looking for when they say "balance." More often they mean "spotlight time" which is even more vague. A part of the reason for the randomness in early editions, and particularly in something like OD&D is to give a somewhat even footing to characters. Hit points are a great equalizer, when everyone has fairly close to the same amounts. A 1st level magic-user with 1d6 hit dice in a dungeon isn't that less squishy than the fighter with 1d6+1 hit dice, and when everything deals the same damage, a fireball isn't that much more deadly than a sword. This is why it is important to know about early games. Games aren't technology, they don't become obsolete. Just being newer doesn't make something automatically better. Andy Warhol's works aren't better than Picasso's just because he made them more recently. [/QUOTE]

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