Classes and D&D 4E (my analysis)
So, I've heard a lot of people weigh in on whether or not there is power creep in 4E D&D. That, for the uninitiated, is the tendency of gaming companies to lure people to buy new books by promising that the new classes/races/everything will be suitably more kick ass than the original classes or races.
Hence why I spent this morning doing some math. Not only is it good to rattle my brain occasionally to remember how to use it, but I got the Player's Handbook 2 for 4E D&D and wanted to see how the new classes stacked up against the old classes. I'll go through this by class role.
Controller
This is the most flagrant instance of power creep. Simply put, the invoker kicks everyone else's ass and then some. They have the best maximum armour class (AC) at 1st level, they have the best average damage from at-wills, they have more healing surges than a wizard and they have that wacky divine thing (except for clerics... strange) of having +1 to all defences.
The wizard isn't completely pooched, but they have the lowest AC of the three controllers, mid-range damagea, the least hit points and the least surges. They get boned pretty bad.
The druid has good hit points, surges and AC, but is the lowest on the at-will damage metre.
Most powerful controller: Invoker, hands down
Defenders
The one weird bit in this category is the swordmage. They have much better average damage than the other defenders, but they have midrange everything else. This is a much more balanced role group since wardens have worse AC yet better hit points and that just increases over levels since they get 7 HP each level, not the traditional defender allotment of 6.
The fighter gets the least number of skills to learn of any class and the paladin gets the best AC as well as 4 skills. The paladin does have the least average damage, but not by much. They also have the most insane mark of the bunch since it does automatic damage. One of the monsters that my player characters encountered got to strike at them if they injured it. Nasty power, but he was meant to be tough. Every time he did that he took 7 points of damage. That was the thing that killed him, not my players.
Most powerful defender: Paladin, mainly due to their divine challenge mark
Leaders
Shaman does the most damage and has the most hit points, but has the worst AC of the bunch. Very similar in nature to the warden in that respect. The warlord and the bard are tied for the best AC, but the bard has the benefit of using Constitution as one of their main abilities, leading to great hit points as well. The cleric is pooched on average damage, hit points and surges, but they're still top dog when it comes time to heal the party. The bard feels like power creep in the extreme, but actually isn't that bad. They have more surges than the warlord and do slightly more damage, but that's mostly due to the strange mechanic of them attacking using their Charisma... when using a sword. That just feels a little wonky to me, a little too much of "Let's allow the bard do everything with Charisma because it would be unfair to split up their powers between two abilities... like the cleric." The warlord's damage is actually reduced artificially by me including the powers from Martial Power, so they're actually a bit better in some respects.
Most powerful leader: A toss up. Clerics rock for healing, bards are most versatile, warlords are good manipulators of battle and shaman are well-balanced. Bards win by a slim margain.
Strikers
This is a real mixed bag.
Best damage: Sorcerer
Best hit points: Barbarian
Best hit points/level: Tie between barbarian and avenger
Most surges: Barbarian(10), then warlock(8), then avenger(7), the rest are at 6
Most skills: Rogue (6), then ranger (5)
Best AC: Ranger and rogue (15), then barbarian
Rogue is fairly good for an all-around striker, warlock holds up well in damage, sorcerer and avenger both have a good feel to them (the sorcerer doing more damage per hit and the avenger hitting more often), the barbarian is fairly good at smashing stuff and being tough and the ranger just does their thing in the middle of the pack.
Most powerful striker: I'd still say rogue. They have the skills and they do the damage and that's what strikers are there for. The best strikers for flair I'd give to the classes from the PHB2 (barbarian, sorcerer, avenger).
So... not too much power creep except for bard and invoker and the latter is the only class that's truly guilty of it. I might do the same with races later, but I do think that they're fairly balanced.
Hence why I spent this morning doing some math. Not only is it good to rattle my brain occasionally to remember how to use it, but I got the Player's Handbook 2 for 4E D&D and wanted to see how the new classes stacked up against the old classes. I'll go through this by class role.
Controller
This is the most flagrant instance of power creep. Simply put, the invoker kicks everyone else's ass and then some. They have the best maximum armour class (AC) at 1st level, they have the best average damage from at-wills, they have more healing surges than a wizard and they have that wacky divine thing (except for clerics... strange) of having +1 to all defences.
The wizard isn't completely pooched, but they have the lowest AC of the three controllers, mid-range damagea, the least hit points and the least surges. They get boned pretty bad.
The druid has good hit points, surges and AC, but is the lowest on the at-will damage metre.
Most powerful controller: Invoker, hands down
Defenders
The one weird bit in this category is the swordmage. They have much better average damage than the other defenders, but they have midrange everything else. This is a much more balanced role group since wardens have worse AC yet better hit points and that just increases over levels since they get 7 HP each level, not the traditional defender allotment of 6.
The fighter gets the least number of skills to learn of any class and the paladin gets the best AC as well as 4 skills. The paladin does have the least average damage, but not by much. They also have the most insane mark of the bunch since it does automatic damage. One of the monsters that my player characters encountered got to strike at them if they injured it. Nasty power, but he was meant to be tough. Every time he did that he took 7 points of damage. That was the thing that killed him, not my players.
Most powerful defender: Paladin, mainly due to their divine challenge mark
Leaders
Shaman does the most damage and has the most hit points, but has the worst AC of the bunch. Very similar in nature to the warden in that respect. The warlord and the bard are tied for the best AC, but the bard has the benefit of using Constitution as one of their main abilities, leading to great hit points as well. The cleric is pooched on average damage, hit points and surges, but they're still top dog when it comes time to heal the party. The bard feels like power creep in the extreme, but actually isn't that bad. They have more surges than the warlord and do slightly more damage, but that's mostly due to the strange mechanic of them attacking using their Charisma... when using a sword. That just feels a little wonky to me, a little too much of "Let's allow the bard do everything with Charisma because it would be unfair to split up their powers between two abilities... like the cleric." The warlord's damage is actually reduced artificially by me including the powers from Martial Power, so they're actually a bit better in some respects.
Most powerful leader: A toss up. Clerics rock for healing, bards are most versatile, warlords are good manipulators of battle and shaman are well-balanced. Bards win by a slim margain.
Strikers
This is a real mixed bag.
Best damage: Sorcerer
Best hit points: Barbarian
Best hit points/level: Tie between barbarian and avenger
Most surges: Barbarian(10), then warlock(8), then avenger(7), the rest are at 6
Most skills: Rogue (6), then ranger (5)
Best AC: Ranger and rogue (15), then barbarian
Rogue is fairly good for an all-around striker, warlock holds up well in damage, sorcerer and avenger both have a good feel to them (the sorcerer doing more damage per hit and the avenger hitting more often), the barbarian is fairly good at smashing stuff and being tough and the ranger just does their thing in the middle of the pack.
Most powerful striker: I'd still say rogue. They have the skills and they do the damage and that's what strikers are there for. The best strikers for flair I'd give to the classes from the PHB2 (barbarian, sorcerer, avenger).
So... not too much power creep except for bard and invoker and the latter is the only class that's truly guilty of it. I might do the same with races later, but I do think that they're fairly balanced.