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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7693231" data-attributes="member: 29398">Now here's a conceit that's really starting to rub me the wrong way the more I see of it.Any character (and thus player) can at any time ALWAYS be a meaningful contributor to the party, and thus the game.&nbsp; It just depends on how you define &quot;contributing&quot;.&nbsp; Let's take a combat situation where you're out of spells and have no useful way of directly hurting the opponent.&nbsp; Are you keeping a lookout?&nbsp; Are you directing traffic?&nbsp; Are you being a distraction so the opponent(s) don't notice what your friends are doing?&nbsp; Are you looting the room?&nbsp; Are you jamming the door open so you all have a sure means of escape if needed?&nbsp; Are you doing any of a hundred other useful things?&nbsp; Or are you just moaning that you can't do anything to help?Balance here might mean that the non-combative character is the key element in the party in other situations e.g. diplomacy or stealth or whatever, at which times others might have to take a back seat for a while; and this is just fine.The sort of balance where everyone can do an equal amount of stuff at every moment is not a goal worth striving for, because if achieved an obvious side effect will be that all characters are roughly the same...and what's the point of that?Lan-&quot;unbalanced at the best of times&quot;-efan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7693231, member: 29398"] Now here's a conceit that's really starting to rub me the wrong way the more I see of it. Any character (and thus player) can at any time ALWAYS be a meaningful contributor to the party, and thus the game. It just depends on how you define "contributing". Let's take a combat situation where you're out of spells and have no useful way of directly hurting the opponent. Are you keeping a lookout? Are you directing traffic? Are you being a distraction so the opponent(s) don't notice what your friends are doing? Are you looting the room? Are you jamming the door open so you all have a sure means of escape if needed? Are you doing any of a hundred other useful things? Or are you just moaning that you can't do anything to help? Balance here might mean that the non-combative character is the key element in the party in other situations e.g. diplomacy or stealth or whatever, at which times others might have to take a back seat for a while; and this is just fine. The sort of balance where everyone can do an equal amount of stuff at every moment is not a goal worth striving for, because if achieved an obvious side effect will be that all characters are roughly the same...and what's the point of that? Lan-"unbalanced at the best of times"-efan [/QUOTE]

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