Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 15, 2024 15:03:01 GMT -5
Here is a well done explanation of level limits.
By Glenn Riter
It's just a different way to balance things - It's a global narrative balancing, rather than aiming for a perfect and level by level parity across all the races and classes. All the other races were strictly better than humans in every way - Except one.
Older editions balanced higher average strengths against exceptional fews, putting the various classes and races into a global perspective consistent with the state of the larger world. Warriors are stronger than magic users at low levels - And there are many more warriors than magic users, because for the most part the warriors are better. Those exceptional few high level wizards, however, ensure that magic users are feared and renowned the world over, so there are still people willing to try for the class despite its utility and survivability rates at low levels being very limited.
Same concept here. Elves ARE better than humans, significantly so. With a very few number of exceptions. Dwarves ARE better than humans, significantly so. With a very few number of exceptions.
And those few exceptions are so significant that they make up the difference and then some.
That's the approach to "balance" that Gygax took. If you took the path that granted more power early on, it would come at the cost of potential. Most games never ran long enough for that to even be a factor - But designing things that way explained much about why the world was the way it was - With magic users being rare but feared, with human fighters being common but not particularly respected, with elves and dwarves slowly losing ground to humanity, and so on.
His lore decisions were, to a very large and very real degree, based on questioning what the world would look like if these mythical things were real, and why. On top of that, he loved the narrative of brave humans combating powerful creatures and heroically, against all odds, winning. But considering how very disadvantaged humans are against nearly all creatures of fantasy, he felt it was important to come up with an in game reason humans weren't absolutely exterminated. So, he gave the humans the best of the heroes. They were the weakest and most pathetic race yes, but also the ones with the highest potential.
It's just a different way to balance things - It's a global narrative balancing, rather than aiming for a perfect and level by level parity across all the races and classes. All the other races were strictly better than humans in every way - Except one.
Older editions balanced higher average strengths against exceptional fews, putting the various classes and races into a global perspective consistent with the state of the larger world. Warriors are stronger than magic users at low levels - And there are many more warriors than magic users, because for the most part the warriors are better. Those exceptional few high level wizards, however, ensure that magic users are feared and renowned the world over, so there are still people willing to try for the class despite its utility and survivability rates at low levels being very limited.
Same concept here. Elves ARE better than humans, significantly so. With a very few number of exceptions. Dwarves ARE better than humans, significantly so. With a very few number of exceptions.
And those few exceptions are so significant that they make up the difference and then some.
That's the approach to "balance" that Gygax took. If you took the path that granted more power early on, it would come at the cost of potential. Most games never ran long enough for that to even be a factor - But designing things that way explained much about why the world was the way it was - With magic users being rare but feared, with human fighters being common but not particularly respected, with elves and dwarves slowly losing ground to humanity, and so on.
His lore decisions were, to a very large and very real degree, based on questioning what the world would look like if these mythical things were real, and why. On top of that, he loved the narrative of brave humans combating powerful creatures and heroically, against all odds, winning. But considering how very disadvantaged humans are against nearly all creatures of fantasy, he felt it was important to come up with an in game reason humans weren't absolutely exterminated. So, he gave the humans the best of the heroes. They were the weakest and most pathetic race yes, but also the ones with the highest potential.
