AKA_Bait
2008-05-23, 08:08 AM
Ok, so I was reading this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81113)thread and this proposition sort of popped into my head. I'm curious to see what the playground has to say about it.
Proposition: Class imbalance and level power discrepancies can make a system more conducive to a wide range of playstyles.
Basically, the argument is this: looking at 3.x one should admit that a pretty wide range of playstyles can be accomidated by the system. There seem to me to be a two primary reasons why.
1. A non-linear power differential from level to level. i.e. games played a low, medium and high levels are by and large more conducive to different styles of play. Very low levels are grittier with a solid chance of PC death, midlevels are more heroic fantasy style games, and high levels are godlike tales. That there is this differential allows different styles of game to be played under the same general system, just using different parts of the level spectrum.
2. Class imbalance and a wide range of optimized powerlevels. Even at the herioc level, a game can be much grittier if some of the less powerful classes are selected by the PC's without much power oriented optimization. A heroic teir game can also get godlike with heavily optimized PCs using strong classes. There's also the whole range in between.
So, it seems to me that part of the reason that 3.x has the range of versitlity it does is as a consequence of the imbalances and 'design flaws' in the system.
Of course, I'm not arguing that 3.x did this well or on purpose. There are few options for casting classes that will not trounce melee classes at similar levels and those that exist tend to have huge mechanical problems (like the Truenamer). However, it does seem that a thought worth entertaining when designing a new system is to purposefully put such imbalances into the game but have them executed in a more consistant manner from one type of PC class to another type of PC class. i.e. there is a low powered fighter type class playable from level 1 - 20 and also a low powered casting class playable from levels 1 - 20 as well as high powered versions of each.
I'm not convinced of this proposition myself btw, but I'm curious to get the playgrounds feedback.
Proposition: Class imbalance and level power discrepancies can make a system more conducive to a wide range of playstyles.
Basically, the argument is this: looking at 3.x one should admit that a pretty wide range of playstyles can be accomidated by the system. There seem to me to be a two primary reasons why.
1. A non-linear power differential from level to level. i.e. games played a low, medium and high levels are by and large more conducive to different styles of play. Very low levels are grittier with a solid chance of PC death, midlevels are more heroic fantasy style games, and high levels are godlike tales. That there is this differential allows different styles of game to be played under the same general system, just using different parts of the level spectrum.
2. Class imbalance and a wide range of optimized powerlevels. Even at the herioc level, a game can be much grittier if some of the less powerful classes are selected by the PC's without much power oriented optimization. A heroic teir game can also get godlike with heavily optimized PCs using strong classes. There's also the whole range in between.
So, it seems to me that part of the reason that 3.x has the range of versitlity it does is as a consequence of the imbalances and 'design flaws' in the system.
Of course, I'm not arguing that 3.x did this well or on purpose. There are few options for casting classes that will not trounce melee classes at similar levels and those that exist tend to have huge mechanical problems (like the Truenamer). However, it does seem that a thought worth entertaining when designing a new system is to purposefully put such imbalances into the game but have them executed in a more consistant manner from one type of PC class to another type of PC class. i.e. there is a low powered fighter type class playable from level 1 - 20 and also a low powered casting class playable from levels 1 - 20 as well as high powered versions of each.
I'm not convinced of this proposition myself btw, but I'm curious to get the playgrounds feedback.