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2e Bard vs Wizard Class Balance
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<blockquote data-quote="TBeholder" data-source="post: 8568365" data-attributes="member: 41606"><p>I don't see why Bard or other "lesser spellcasters" should have highest-level spells like primary spellcasters. It's not like everyone with improving to-Hit chance can take specialization like Fighter. But it's only a part of the problem.</p><p>Another part is whether our obeisance to the ill-defined idea of “balance” requires to compare characters of <em>the same level</em> or <em>the same XP total</em>. The former doesn't make much sense, the latter runs into the fact that in AD&D2 Individual XP award are a thing, thus XP sums in one party will not be the same, and even the sign the disparity for the specific party <em>will</em> strongly depend on the campaign.</p><p></p><p>Of course, Bard class <em>does</em> have problems specific to it. Bard class in *D&D in general (on High Concept level) is built around a mix of capabilities that are either:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Stealthy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Showy, i.e. the opposite of stealthy.</li> </ol><p>Obviously, these subsets don't mix well. Also, the stealthy subset is necessarily inferior to that of the purely stealth based class.</p><p>Looking at the context, in AD&D1 it was introduced as a prestige class for rather high level and already dual-classed characters. AD&D2 version is a simplification of this.</p><p>Considering 2 points above, if it looks a bit broken, and it's not clear how to fix it without breaking in an overpowered way (within framework of AD&D2), this should not be a surprise.</p><p></p><p>Another view of the problem is: Bard and all other "lesser spellcasters" (as well as <a href="https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/07/original-cleric.html" target="_blank">Hammer Horror</a> Cleric) are <em>ersatz-multiclasses</em>. As such, they were needed in AD&D1-2 at all only due to multiclassing being too clunky. And as an atavism of a hundred Exxtra Kustom classes with their little Exxtra Kustom spell lists in an older edition that didn't have multiclassing at all.</p><p>But in <em>this</em> context, the first question necessarily is: if “Bard” class as presented is <em>de facto</em> an implicit Thief/dabbling-Wizard(Song)/pure-Bard multiclass, what would purified dabbling-Wizard (<thaumaturgy school>) and pure-Bard classes look like? To the laboratory!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TBeholder, post: 8568365, member: 41606"] I don't see why Bard or other "lesser spellcasters" should have highest-level spells like primary spellcasters. It's not like everyone with improving to-Hit chance can take specialization like Fighter. But it's only a part of the problem. Another part is whether our obeisance to the ill-defined idea of “balance” requires to compare characters of [I]the same level[/I] or [I]the same XP total[/I]. The former doesn't make much sense, the latter runs into the fact that in AD&D2 Individual XP award are a thing, thus XP sums in one party will not be the same, and even the sign the disparity for the specific party [I]will[/I] strongly depend on the campaign. Of course, Bard class [I]does[/I] have problems specific to it. Bard class in *D&D in general (on High Concept level) is built around a mix of capabilities that are either: [LIST=1] [*]Stealthy. [*]Showy, i.e. the opposite of stealthy. [/LIST] Obviously, these subsets don't mix well. Also, the stealthy subset is necessarily inferior to that of the purely stealth based class. Looking at the context, in AD&D1 it was introduced as a prestige class for rather high level and already dual-classed characters. AD&D2 version is a simplification of this. Considering 2 points above, if it looks a bit broken, and it's not clear how to fix it without breaking in an overpowered way (within framework of AD&D2), this should not be a surprise. Another view of the problem is: Bard and all other "lesser spellcasters" (as well as [URL='https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/07/original-cleric.html']Hammer Horror[/URL] Cleric) are [I]ersatz-multiclasses[/I]. As such, they were needed in AD&D1-2 at all only due to multiclassing being too clunky. And as an atavism of a hundred Exxtra Kustom classes with their little Exxtra Kustom spell lists in an older edition that didn't have multiclassing at all. But in [I]this[/I] context, the first question necessarily is: if “Bard” class as presented is [I]de facto[/I] an implicit Thief/dabbling-Wizard(Song)/pure-Bard multiclass, what would purified dabbling-Wizard (<thaumaturgy school>) and pure-Bard classes look like? To the laboratory! [/QUOTE]
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