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Archpaladin Zousha
2010-02-03, 10:05 PM
I'm attempting to recruit another player for my Scales of War game over at the Traveller's Respite, and he's expressed interest in a homebrew class based on the Archivist class from 3.5's Heroes of Horror. I like the flavor of the Archivist, but I'd like to know how well-balanced the class is before I give approval. If I reject the Archivist, he says he'll likely play an artificer.

Here's the data for the Archivist:

http://www.box.net/shared/381j5skity

How balanced is it? Should I greenlight the player's decision to use it, or urge him towards the Artificer? This isn't a flavor issue unlike my other player's plushie race, but I've always been leery of homebrew.

Colmarr
2010-02-03, 10:13 PM
It depends on (1) how important balance is to you, and (2) your ability and willingness to say no later if you have to.

The more important balance is, the more I'd stay away from homebrew.

Conversely, if you are willing and able to lay down the law later, then you can afford to let it in now on the express condition that you can withdraw that decision later.

For a PBP game, I don't think you should have to complete a masters thesis on his proposal before the game even starts. Either say no if you're uncomfortable with issues (1) or (2) or say yes and adjust later as the situation demands.

Archpaladin Zousha
2010-02-03, 10:16 PM
I don't know how important balance is because I have no idea how to judge whether something is balanced or not. :smallredface:

Mando Knight
2010-02-03, 10:26 PM
I'd urge him towards Artificer. I haven't read through all of it, but what I've seen has multiple design inconsistencies and typographical errors. The latter doesn't directly say anything about it, but I'm always leery of any kind of homebrew that has poor sentence structure and redundant statements since it's the kind of thing that gets torn to shreds by a legal examination.

Colmarr
2010-02-03, 10:27 PM
I don't know how important balance is because I have no idea how to judge whether something is balanced or not. :smallredface:

They're different questions.

"Is balance important?" is about whether it annoys you if one PC is more effective than another, or if one of the PCs overshadows the monsters. If that doesn't bother you, then balance is not important to you.

You don't need to be able to judge balance to decide whether it's important. In fact, if it is important and you can't judge it, then your default position should be to say no to homebrew.

Archpaladin Zousha
2010-02-03, 10:30 PM
What do you mean by design inconsistencies?

Archpaladin Zousha
2010-02-03, 11:44 PM
They're different questions.

"Is balance important?" is about whether it annoys you if one PC is more effective than another, or if one of the PCs overshadows the monsters. If that doesn't bother you, then balance is not important to you.

You don't need to be able to judge balance to decide whether it's important. In fact, if it is important and you can't judge it, then your default position should be to say no to homebrew.

I don't want to piss off potential players though. The board I'm running this on has very few people interested in 4e. :smallfrown:

Colmarr
2010-02-04, 12:07 AM
I don't want to piss off potential players though. The board I'm running this on has very few people interested in 4e. :smallfrown:

Doesn't that sort of answer the question for you?

You don't want to piss him off now, and you won't want to piss him off later. So just say yes and stop worrying about it :smallsmile:

Archpaladin Zousha
2010-02-04, 12:32 AM
Okay, I said yes. I hope I don't live to regret it.