I think it’s a problem just because of changing expectations for the game. If you’re playing modern D&D, where combat is supposed to be balanced, character death is rare, everyone levels at roughly the same rate, yeah, it sucks to be an early level wizard or a late level fighter who can’t keep up with the rest of the party. I get why the trend has been to try to balance them, even if it’s a bit wonky. I get it, it’s hard to do.
But if you’re playing it in more old-school way, where it’s more gamey, it makes a LOT more sense. Combat isn’t necessarily balanced, character death is more on the table, you’re more likely to have a rotating cast, and parties can have different levels between the members. So the late-game magic-user is the reward for playing the class that’s weaker earlier on, and the fighter is great for jumping into the action.
To be fair, Gygax as a DM was adversarial AF and literally sought every opportunity to TPK with singular focus. To him, the way you won at D&D was to know the game better than the DM, and he was an insufferable ass about it, NGL. (source: I had the privilege of playing at his table at GenCon in the 90s) The bit about the Wish Fulfillment is spot on, as the OG creators of the system constructed it out of spreadsheets and statistics (shudders in THAC0) in order to “realistically” play out their own branches of Tolkein’s grand tales. So, with that in mind, and LotR in its entirety as a blueprint, the casters-as-gods-in-training and martials grabbing all the glory makes perfect sense.
And that’s not even touching on the extreme rarity of “late game” sessions ever being played. The impact of obligations on scheduling in adulthood combined with the exponentially more complex prep work involved on both sides of the table add up to “campaigns” being a pipe dream for all but the most cloistered of gaming groups. In fact, smart money’s on the likelihood that high level short arcs & one shots easily outnumber by an order of magnitude the campaigns that’ve reached late game status through regular play.
So, I guess what I’m saying here is: comparing the two is less about what affects actual gameplay and pretty much only about debating who would win in a fight and at what point on their level progression — not unlike arguing which comic book character could whip another one’s ass, or which sportsball player has the better stats at certain points in their career… And, we’re back to Wish Fulfillment theorycrafting. 🤓🧙🏼♂️
This is so gloriously fucking spot on that I’d take my hat off (if it weren’t a cursed artifact with -2 charisma bound to my head through magicks unknown)
A tale as old as time: the linear warrior, quadratic wizard. (TVTropes warning.)
I think it’s a problem just because of changing expectations for the game. If you’re playing modern D&D, where combat is supposed to be balanced, character death is rare, everyone levels at roughly the same rate, yeah, it sucks to be an early level wizard or a late level fighter who can’t keep up with the rest of the party. I get why the trend has been to try to balance them, even if it’s a bit wonky. I get it, it’s hard to do.
But if you’re playing it in more old-school way, where it’s more gamey, it makes a LOT more sense. Combat isn’t necessarily balanced, character death is more on the table, you’re more likely to have a rotating cast, and parties can have different levels between the members. So the late-game magic-user is the reward for playing the class that’s weaker earlier on, and the fighter is great for jumping into the action.
To be fair, Gygax as a DM was adversarial AF and literally sought every opportunity to TPK with singular focus. To him, the way you won at D&D was to know the game better than the DM, and he was an insufferable ass about it, NGL. (source: I had the privilege of playing at his table at GenCon in the 90s) The bit about the Wish Fulfillment is spot on, as the OG creators of the system constructed it out of spreadsheets and statistics (shudders in THAC0) in order to “realistically” play out their own branches of Tolkein’s grand tales. So, with that in mind, and LotR in its entirety as a blueprint, the casters-as-gods-in-training and martials grabbing all the glory makes perfect sense.
And that’s not even touching on the extreme rarity of “late game” sessions ever being played. The impact of obligations on scheduling in adulthood combined with the exponentially more complex prep work involved on both sides of the table add up to “campaigns” being a pipe dream for all but the most cloistered of gaming groups. In fact, smart money’s on the likelihood that high level short arcs & one shots easily outnumber by an order of magnitude the campaigns that’ve reached late game status through regular play.
So, I guess what I’m saying here is: comparing the two is less about what affects actual gameplay and pretty much only about debating who would win in a fight and at what point on their level progression — not unlike arguing which comic book character could whip another one’s ass, or which sportsball player has the better stats at certain points in their career… And, we’re back to Wish Fulfillment theorycrafting. 🤓🧙🏼♂️
This is so gloriously fucking spot on that I’d take my hat off (if it weren’t a cursed artifact with -2 charisma bound to my head through magicks unknown)