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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How do I deal with my character's role in our party being overtaken by other PCs?
For some context, I am playing level 20 Barbarian, with 24 STR and CON, and have mostly adopted the totem of the bear.
When we began our campaign many levels ago, my role was to force enemies to ...
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Does Pathfinder 2e fix the “linear fighters, quadratic wizards” problem?
This question about the playtest got the answer "we just do not know it yet".
More than a year after the publication, what it the final answer?
(if making a comparison to DnD 5e helps, use ...
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What can I do to prevent a player from breaking the game?
Several of my friends are starting a game pretty soon, and one of the players is a great guy, and fun to play with EXCEPT, he plays with the objective of optimization, while everyone else plays much ...
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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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Were "class tiers" in D&D and Pathfinder made on purpose?
As I read it everywhere, classes in the games I mentioned in the title differ in power a lot. This takes place in 3.5e and wasn't fixed in Pathfinder. Some search indicates that this problem isn't ...
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How would one create a balanced dragon PC?
I'm running a DnD 5e campaign and had a dragon-born sorcerer with Draconic Bloodline as a sorcerous origin that used the level 9 Wish spell to wish to become a "true dragon."
Are there any rules ...
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How can I convince a fellow player to stop playing super-powerful PCs?
One player in one of my groups always builds PCs that puts the rest of the party to shame. Even when the player tones down their PCs, their PCs are still considerably better than the rest of us. Their ...
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Would allowing barbarians to maintain rage as an action be unbalanced or permit shenanigans?
A barbarian's Rage ends early
if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
Players of barbarians, including those in my own play ...
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Balancing Spellcasters; Spontaneous Casters versus Prepared Casters
So ask any optimizer and they'll almost always tell you the same thing: in 3.5 classes that prepare spells are better than spontaneous spellcasters. It's generally not thought of as even a contest. ...
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Is there enough disparity between the classes to put them into tiers?
I'm interested in the balance of this new edition's classes. Are casters still noticeably more effective in almost all situations than non casters?
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Is the Way of the Four Elements monk subclass variant posted in this D&D Beyond article balanced?
In addition to a character builder and online rules source, D&D Beyond also has a blog, and that blog just posted Monk 101: Way of the Four Elements. This article notes
Regrettably, the Way of ...
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Assassin using Arcane Trickster's Mage Hand: Is it Unbalanced?
So a friend of mine for an upcoming campaign was going to be a rogue, specifically arcane trickster. However, he has changed his mind and now is going to be assassin and cross class to wizard.
That's ...
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Does rolling AC to oppose an Attack Roll impact game balance?
I really like the concept of rolling d20 against each other during ability checks like grappling, etc. I want the same thing for normal attacks, so the defender would also roll a d20 + (AC-10).
Would ...
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What tier are the Pathfinder classes?
I know what tiers are, but what tier are the various Pathfinder classes? This is about Pathfinder only, no 3.5 material is relevant.
An ideal answer would cover all available (non-prestige) classes, ...
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Would limiting Paladins to 1 Divine Smite per turn make them weaker than other classes?
It's no secret that paladins have a very high burst damage thanks to Divine Smite (and the ability to use it on every melee weapon attack as long as you have spell slots to burn), but this has proven ...
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What magic items would a commoner need to go head to head with a party of 4 (Lvl 15) adventurers?
I run a mostly open-world-ish campaign set in the spelljammer setting. My adventurer's overarching goal is to further a religion based around some camel they found (awesome, right?), so what better to ...
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How can I help my players not to feel useless in situations their characters are not optimally designed for?
For the sake of being answerable, I will state a specific scenario that happened to me some months ago while I was DMing. I would like to note that broader answers, that give general advice that ...
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Is Gloom Stalker overpowered?
Sharpshooter is considered to be among the most overpowered feats in D&D 5e. Its gross damage boost is even more pronounced when one has a consistent source for Advantage.
Gloom Stalker has the ...
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Are Strength and Dexterity balanced in Vampire the Masquerade? If not, how can I fix it?
Since Revised edition, I have found that Dexterity is a very powerful trait and that Strength is not so important.
Dexterity + Wits determine initiative, which is a big advantage in combat.
Dexterity ...
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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 I prevent casters from stealing the spotlight from non-casters?
I have been running a game of D&D and the group is split with two non magic users (Fighter, Barbarian), one quarter-caster (Paladin), one half-caster (Bard), and two full casters (Cleric, Wizard). ...
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Depowering a high AC PC without killing the rest of the group
I am a relativly new DM and we are playing Pathfinder. We are playing a pre-made adventure, Rise of the Runelords. My group consists of a Bard, a Sorcerer an Alchemist and a Knight on Level 7. Problem ...
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Are balanced groups important in D&D 5e?
I am the GM. In my 4e campaign, the group (4 players) often ran into trouble in combat if they didn't have one person was in each role of Striker, Defender, Controller & Leader (especially for ...
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Is this homebrew Mind Flayer race balanced?
I have found a homebrew Mind Flayer race* and am wondering if it is reasonably well balanced against other races.
I have removed the fluff like age etc and just left the important parts.
My personal ...
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Does Pathfinder 2e Playtest fix the "linear fighters, quadratic wizards" problem?
It is generally accepted that a reasonably optimized DnD 3.5e wizard will wipe the floor with even a well optimized DnD 3.5e fighter by high levels, often known as "linear fighters, quadratic wizards"....
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How do I evaluate whether my homebrew race is balanced?
I've just created a couple of homebrew races for my players to potentially choose from for an upcoming campaign.
The problem is, I have no idea how well they stack up against the official races when ...
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Is my Ranger doing more damage than they should?
My character is a level 5 ranger and can do on average 50 or so damage per round.
I have the Venomous Bow
and and some basic bane toxin. The bow has the following relevant traits:
Poison Generation. ...
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How effective is Witch Bolt?
After reading the effect of Witch Bolt from the D&D PH, it really seemed to me like an insanely powerful spell, especially when cast at 2nd level or higher.
I have had no experience with the ...
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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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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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Take 2! Is this homebrew Lady of Pain warlock patron balanced?
A little while ago I posted this homebrew Patron option here. I got some great feedback and have returned not only with an update but also with some homebrew Invocations that support the overall ...
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Are there serious balance implications to permitting Bonus Actions to be Readied/Prepared?
My Ancients Paladin is commonly stymied by the limitation on Readied Actions, in that Bonus Actions cannot under any circumstances, per RAW, be "prepared".
For example, suppose a Paladin wished to ...
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How to balance FATE when some players just can't fail?
I'm GMing a long-running game in FATE core, and I've been running into a bit of a balance problem. A couple of my players have gotten (what feels to me like) too powerful. They don't really seem to ...
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Overly strong level 1 barbarian
I am new to DMing (this is my first campaign) and one of the PCs rolled a 18 str char and made a 20 str Barbarian.
What is the best way to deal with this at the early levels of the game where his hit ...
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How do I tweak this crouching rule to balance it?
My ranger uses light crossbow. A few sessions back, he flavored his movement and attack as "I move there, and crouch before attacking." In character, previously he taught the others that it ...
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How to increase a monster's CR without adjusting its flavour too much?
Background
I have a player who has a level 8 Half Orc Paladin (STR 16, CON 18, CHA 14, Vengeance oath, Sentinel and Orcish Fury feats, no magic items) whose backstory involves running away from his ...
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What are the consequences of removing the potential for critical hit extra damage on spell attacks?
Current table has a house rule that spells attacks can not deal extra damage through critical hits. They have the rule that you can critically succeed or fail on a natural 20 or 1 on saving throws.
...
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Is it unbalanced to allow a player to move the tiefling's +1 Int bonus to a different ability score?
I'm in the planning phases of a campaign for D&D 5e, but using the Planescape setting. Since this setting is the one which introduced tieflings, I sent the table of potential tiefling traits to my ...
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House rules for a new player's Ranger character; are they balanced?
I've managed to convince my GF to try out a simple campaign. She is new to tabletop gaming. Knowing her, I decided to have her play a ranger with a pet (she loves her dog, a lot). I designed some ...
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Is my homebrew Burning Ears spell the right spell level?
I have designed this spell:
Burning Ears
8th-level divination
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Self
Components: S, M (an earwig or a hollowed out animal horn)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
...
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What are the balance implications of allowing Forge Clerics to gradually create items worth over 100gp with multiple uses of Artisan's Blessing?
I am currently DM'ing a campaign, in which one of the PCs is a Forge Cleric.
Artisan's Blessing lets Forge Clerics conduct a ritual to craft non-magical items worth no more than 100gp. Raw materials ...
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How can I decide if my homebrew item should require attunement? [duplicate]
Attunement slots are an important tool for maintaining game balance - especially in high magic settings where magic items are common.
If I've homebrewed a new magic item for my players, how can I ...
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Are there any balance issues with familiar from the Find Familiar spell to be of the elemental creature type (instead of celestial, fey, or fiend)?
The spell find familiar allows a character to summon a familiar, which is a spirit of creature type celestial, fey or fiend. From the spell's description (PHB, p. 240):
You gain the service of a ...
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Is this homebrew Oath of the Jedi paladin subclass balanced compared to the official subclasses?
Is the following homebrew Oath of the Jedi paladin subclass balanced compared to the official subclasses?
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the following levels:
3rd - Jump, Catapult
...
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How to GM "An arresting skinner" in a balanced, fair and fun way
In Apocalypse World, the social and beauty oriented class Skinner has a move called "An arresting skinner" which does pretty much what it promises:
An arresting skinner: when you remove clothing, ...
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How can I balance encounters with a party consisting of a sorcerer, monk, rogue, and fighter?
Made a rookie mistake of letting my players (who have never played DnD) choose what class to play without discussing with me or each other, and we ended up with no healer. We've already played quite a ...
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Why is allowing players to stack their skill proficiency bonus overpowered?
I am the DM for a campaign and play with the following house rules:
When gaining proficiency in any skill (during character creation, taking the Skilled feat, etc.), you may choose a skill more than ...
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How can I balance the Zealot barbarian's Warrior of the Gods feature in a setting without resurrection?
In our homebrew universe, we don't have resurrection (as we feel it cheapens character death, etc. - don't really want to get into that debate). Spells like revivify, raise dead, and resurrection ...
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What are the balance ramifications of always preventing creatures from taking reactions before their first turn?
I've recently been toying with some rule modifications to 5e's Initiative rules in an attempt to resolve the rule/reality inconsistency where a player "gets the jump" on a monster, but the monster is ...
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What is the distribution of Saving Throws associated with each attribute that are required by spells?
I read somewhere that in D&D 5e, the Saving Throw distribution for spells was biased towards DEX, CON and WIS. In other words, if you had proficiency in those attributes, you would benefit a lot ...
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