Quote Originally Posted by Belac93 View Post
If a concern is balancing magic and martial characters, why not just buff martial characters and scale monsters up?
With regard to this point, other than what has been mentioned about it being easier to fix that which is too good, rather than fixing every other things in the game, it is also important to note that simply moving everything to the same power level doesn't necessarily fix things, if that power level is bad for the game. There is a mantra you may often hear in conversations like this one: "always buff, never nerf." However, that phrase, despite being common, is almost entirely BS. You are likely to hear it from people who enjoy the things that are being called overpowered, but , almost anyone with significant experience in game design can tell you that it is not a good idea.

Games are designed around particular power levels. That power level is what allows all of the systems of the game to interact properly. This big problem is that the mechanics that the players get to use are not the only mechanics in the system. If a player option is out of whack when it comes to balance, it is not simply because it is a different power level than other player options. The issue is that it is out of line with what all the other systems of the game expect. Changing the power level of everything else to match this broken element does not fix everything. It may make the other options feel less outclassed, but the game itself will still have significant issues, since it will not be expecting players to have that level of power. Only by dialing back an overpowered option (or dialing up an underpowered one) can you actually fix balance issues and have a game that plays how it is expected to.

Now obviously, whether or not any particular thing is overpowered or not is a different question all together. But while it is tempting to always want to leave something powerful alone because some people enjoy it, you are not going to fix balance issues without fixing the actual elements that are at issue.