Questions tagged [balance]
For questions about balance or perceived inequities between characters, classes, subclasses, spells, etc. that should be of roughly equivalent capability with one another.
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Would a greatsword that is +1/+3 vs aberrations unbalance my game?
My current D&D 3.5 campaign is about aberrations and I want to give my low-level characters an advantage against aberrations. (They're level 2 at the moment). One of my players is playing a ...
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Is there a limit to Rule 0?
Rule Zero: All other rules can be changed by the GM.
I appreciate that there is a massive amount of work that goes into being a GM and the last thing that any GM wants or deserves is to have his ...
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Would magic 'weapons' make the monk more balanced?
The monk in D&D 3.5 (and, to a lesser extent, in Pathfinder) is generally considered underpowered.
Would adding magic 'weapons' that could add enhancement bonuses and magic weapon effects to a ...
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What makes a character/creature/power/ability/etc. over-powered?
In generic terms, what makes something, regardless of what game it's being used in, over powered?
I hear the term a lot, and while I can recognize it when I see it in-play (often due to someone ...
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What to do when your character is just too good?
I'm playing in the Paizo Pathfinder Jade Regent adventure path and we're having a good time so far (campaign blog and session summaries). However, as my character has gone up in power I'm now ...
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How to encourage a player's creativity without breaking the game?
I've just started a new D&D 4e campaign with a new group of players. One of my players came straight from 2nd edition, and has never played 4e before. She doesn't seem to grasp the layer of ...
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Pathfinder Battle Royale!
A friend and I were thinking about doing a Colosseum battle to the death with our group, for game sessions when not everyone was there, or just to let people test out character builds.
What we were ...
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Why do Weapon Mastery feats have the requirements they do?
I've been playing and DMing in Epic tier for some time now, and have introduced quite a few house rules already (mostly common ones - free expertise feats, free improved defences), and I'm wondering ...
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How much can/should a single owned item be worth at most?
How much can any single possession take up a character's wealth? For this question, I'd like answers that operate under the presumption that wealth-by-level isn't a minimum but instead a target.
I've ...
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How can I stop a large level disparity from being a problem?
In my campaign, my players each have several different characters at the home base. Every session, they pick which one they want to play. However, some players always use the same one and so have more ...
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How can I balance an enemy that my players might encounter at different levels?
My story revolves around 8 angels that my players must defeat. The thing is I want them to look for them in no particular order. How can I balance an enemy easily in advance, since they may encounter ...
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What can be done to maintain balance in a magic system in which mages must construct their own spells?
I'd like to build a magic system in which every spell is a one-off. A spell is created to serve a particular purpose and is cast once. I'm thinking that the time and place of the casting would be ...
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Power levels of RIFTS classes
Someone posted this link to a set of "tiers" for D&D 3.5 classes, and it got me thinking.
I haven't played RIFTS in forever, and one of the reasons is the wide disparity in class power and ...
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Is two-weapon fighting only as a full-round action balanced versus fighting with a two-handed weapon?
One of the players in a Pathfinder game in which I am playing is arguing that characters should be able to get the additional attack for fighting with two weapons when attacking as a standard action, ...
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Monster Manual 1 - Is it balanced? Should I balance it?
I've been DM'ing a little lately 4 edition D&D and of course I'm confused again:
My first adventure was a big question mark, I didn't use the exact guidelines for creating an encounter and ...
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How can one prevent the gadgeteer edge in Savage Worlds from becoming overpowered without banning or nerfing it into oblivion?
According to the text in the Deluxe Edition of Savage Worlds, the Gadgeteer edge available to weird scientists (WS) allows a player to indefinitely accumulate devices at a rate of one per session, ...
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Is it plausible that characters can invent devices in a medieval setting, and how should one balance it? [closed]
To illustrate what I mean, let me give a quick example:
In The Dark Eye, there is a Staff Ritual named "Hammer des Magus" or "Hammer of the Mage". Its effect is that everything non-organic you touch ...
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Is magic, hacking, or rigging vital for balance in SR4?
I play Shadowrun now and then but ignore magic, hacking, and rigging in my games. Every time I mention this to others they tell me that I should just play Cyberpunk or d20 Spycraft. I ask why, and the ...
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Vow of Poverty, overpowered or underpowered?
I have read plenty of things about the Vow of Poverty in forums, and i have seen both opinions expressed.
If i understand it correctly, it does work on the assumption of a linear magic item ...
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How should I handle nerfing a player for the purposes of game balance?
Background
I run a Live Action Role-Playing game on a monthly basis (from March through November) for anywhere from 10-30 PCs (with 3 other Plot members and anywhere from 0-10 NPCs). The majority of ...
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Balancing players' rolls, not characters
I have been the worst dice-roller in my party as far as I can remember. Be it D&D 3.5, 4th Edition, or any other dice based system, the goddess of luck has always been mean to me.
To give you an ...
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Dealing with Tome of Battle's power inflation
Wait, your swordsage can run up and stab a guy with a fireball (which
he's immune to), on top of a normal attack. He can do this 4 times,
and take a one round break to get a full charge again?
...
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How do I balance game interactions between a giant mecha that can level cities and its pilot?
I have had recurring trouble with a subject I like, and would like to implement into my games, but can't find a good way to do so: mechas (big huge robots)
From a system point of view, it is usually ...
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Players rolling all of the dice in D&D 4th Ed
I was looking at the variant rules listed in the Unearthed Arcana, and noticed one that I think could work pretty well in 4th Ed.
Players Roll All The Dice
Basically it turns the monster's attack ...
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Balancing a mixed game in nWoD
Jadasc raised a great point here.
There are few problems that can challenge a mage that won't completely outclass a vampire, unless the vampires are extraordinarily experienced or well connected ...
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How can you find a balance between effective/optimised characters and creative characters?
When creating characters, I often face a dilemma between making a character. It feels like they can either be optimized so they can "pull their own weight" or having a character I think is ...
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How can you balance a system without making it bland?
In one of my long-term PvP LARP games, we've done a lot of work trying to balance the system we're using, either by banning certain "classes" or "powers" or by altering their specs slightly to make ...
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What steps should I go about to balance a character class?
I'm trying to tweak/balance the Wizard (and to a lesser extent the Cleric) class(es) in Pathfinder.
The two things that really irritate me are:
Spell components. Tongue of frog and Eye of newt ...
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Will magic items with raw stats break game balance in DnD4e?
I, and all the players in my campaign, are all experienced WoW players. (Multiple 85s, reminiscences of 40-man raids when your class — no matter who you were — sucked but was somehow better, etc.…) I ...
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Balancing a monk variant with full base attack bonus
I'm gearing up for a 2-person campaign (my wife and myself, with myself as DM). The party will be two characters, with occasional hirelings/NPCs. One of the characters will be a DMPC (we've run one ...
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How to deal with broken combos? [closed]
Based on Rob Schwalb's article Stuck in the Middle:
How do you, as a player or DM, deal with choosing or forbidding broken combos in your character, group, and system?
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Rules modifications for Exalted Clinches
In the basic rules for Exalted a successful clinch allows the attacker to do the all of following:
Squeeze the target for damage
Reduce the targets DV to zero
Changes the tick on which the target ...
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Leaders Healing too powerful/polarizing in 4e?
My friend and I were having a discussion about Leaders in D&D 4e.
At any rate, it was suggested that it would be better if our party had fewer leaders rather than more: their main purpose (...
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Using Arms Law with HARP: does this affect play balance?
I've played HARP using both the rules in the core rulebook for combat, as well as those presented in Martial Law. I felt neither gave a good result but Martial Law was better. I've played Rolemaster ...
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In FATE, what is the relative value of each characteristic?
There are a lot of FATE variants out there, but most have a few common types of characteristics in common: a number of aspects, a base number of fate points (refresh), skills/abilities, stunts, and ...
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How can I encourage my group to become more well rounded?
My gaming group tends to each go in their own direction for character creation. Sometimes this leads to great games where folks are strongly opposed on dramatic elements and character interaction is ...
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Minor Effects for Magical Items
I tend to prefer high-magic fantasy games, where magical items can be purchased (at around the DMG prices, in D&D) in many large(ish) towns - it's common for the very well-off to have magical ...
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Rebalancing the Orc Brutes in Thunderspire labyrinth?
The Orc Beserker is a miserably designed sack of hitpoints:
Orc Berserker
HP 66; Bloodied 33
AC 15; Fortitude 17, Reflex 13, Will 12
Speed 6 (8 while charging)
Greataxe (standard, at-will) Weapon
+8 ...
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What's the easiest way to adjust a module intended for 5 players so that it can accommodate 6 players?
I'm playing with a 6 character group in the H series of modules, Keep on the Shadowfell and Thunderspire labyrinth, which are both intended for 5 players.
Frankly the combats are usually too easy, ...
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How can I mitigate the power of Spitting Cobra Stance?
The Ranger has an encounter power called Spitting Cobra Stance that seems grossly over-powered—in one group I play in, the Ranger will enter Spitting Cobra Stance at the beginning of combat, and ...
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