Psion said:
Um, no.
Compared to palladium, WotC 3e is a paragon of balance virtue.
A level means something in 3e. If you play some powerful race or class in 3e, you pay for it.
Compare palladium, whose XP shift between Vagabond and (frex) T-man or Dragon is a joke when it comes to equalizing PC power.
Only the rarest (and most widely derided) third party releases are as umbalanced as a typical Palladium release.
Balance is all in the eye of the beholder. D&D is balanced based on the combat/power of the characters for the most part. To many gamers, that is no kind of balance. There is a lot of gamers in the world who avoid D&D because of that "balance". Palladium (in theory) is based a on balance of party participation. Sure a Dragon PC is more POWERFUL than a Rogue Scholar, but its the Rogue Scholar who has all the skills and knowledge. They are not balanced by power, but by each characters having its own niche, neither of which is more important than the other. Or at least its not suppoed to be, in a perfect world. That is not much different from the Fighter/Rogue dynamic in D&D really. Are those two classes unbalanced because the fighter is more powerful (combat wise) than the Rogue? *shrug*.
Different gamers assign different priorities to their gaming style. D&D's combat-based balance isn't right for many.
I like super hero gaming more than most other genres and its not unusual to have a superman type mixed with batman types where the POWER level is shifted in the extreme. But the Batman character shines in his own areas. If you have good roleplayers who like the genre you're playing, it hardly matters.
As far as power creep goes, Palladium has its share, no doubt. Though its almost all a problem with Rifts, as opposed to other palladium games. But so does D&D. Always has, always will. It is what sells. In my multi genre/system experienced opinion, Palladium fantasy is a good solid alternative to D&D. A new Palladium fantasy book with new OCCs or RCCs is no different than a new D&D book with with a new hard of overpowered prestige classes. D&D players saying that Palladium is a power creep game are a bunch of pots calling the kettle black.
Does Palladium need a tune up? Yeah, its overdue. Has beens for years now. Every game needs them eventually.
I dont play Palladium any longer due to a handful of reasons.
1. Clunky character creation
2. Clunky skill system. D&D is better, but not by that much, actually.
3. Lack of players. Most people who will play Palladium wants Rifts insanity, not SDC goodness!
4. Rifts. Interesting idea, terrible execution. Although the money they made on it it allowed for the Fantasy and Heroes Unlimited lines to gain new life, so palladium fans who don't like Rifts shouldn't complain TOO loudly.
4. Bad company attitude. I was one of the people on the conversion mailing list that was mentioned earlier that they closed down. It didn't matter to Mary Ann that there was at least a couple of members that were looking for a good way to convert material TO the palladium system. Their standard knee-jerk reaction affected a lot of different gamers, including palladium die hards. It mattered little to them. Ego, spiteful natures, and a oblivious attitude is a bad combo for the owners of a game company.
