Are the three classes balanced?

Yes, I searched.

Poll: Which do you think is most powerful? (6 member(s) have cast votes)
Which do you think is most powerful?
The Swordsman is most powerful.
(2 votes [33.33%])
Percentage of vote: 33.33%
The Ranger is most powerful.
(1 votes [16.67%])
Percentage of vote: 16.67%
The Conjurer is most powerful.
(2 votes [33.33%])
Percentage of vote: 33.33%
The classes are fairly well-balanced.
(1 votes [16.67%])
Percentage of vote: 16.67%
Other.
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%

I've been playing PoG for a while and I've noticed that rangers seem to be a bit on the strong side. That is to say, they get the best ranged attack (Elven Bow of Destruction), best melee attack (Wolf Claws), and useful spells. A friend of mine, on the other hand, claims that conjurers are even more powerful. However, I haven't seen anyone else commenting on the issue. What do you think? Do the classes' various abilities more or less balance out? Do the swordsman's less flashy bonuses equal the rangers's superior equipment and alchemy?

I know this isn't Diablo and the objective isn't to have the most powerful character, but my RPG background has made me obsessive about balance.

If you compare the three classes using only the Trinity plugin, then I would say that they are definitely not equal (if that's what you mean by being balanced.) I would rate them as follows:

1. Swordsman. Without question the strongest. Most rapid advance with level-ups. The easiest character to play. Only drawback is a lack of ranged weapons but this is more than compensated for by brute force.

2. Ranger. Requires more thought to play to advantage. Doesn't come into his prime until he is able to acquire the Great Wolf Claws. His woodsy potions require one to shop and plan in advance. The recipes for his "book of tricks" are not easy to memorize, so one has to write them down or keep referring to the book for help. The Ranger scenario does have a built-in cheat to get as much gold as you will ever need once you have mastered the Perugo Forest territory.

3. Conjurer. Brains rather than brawn, but even then he's somewhat of a wimp. It also takes him much longer to gain the higher levels of experience. (See table below.) He is severely lacking in either strong weapons or armor, cannot use ranged weapons (but does have ranged spells,) and has, therefore, to play much more defensively.

Now, if we add Stark Bledfast's Spells Expander and Michael Diamond's World of CHa0s these both boost the abilities of the Conjurer to where (in my estimation) he becomes the most fun to play.

The first three levels of any character, including the original without Trinity , require the same number of experience points to attain. Starting with Level 4, the Conjurer starts to fall behind. Here's how it looks from Level 15 to Level 29. The first number is the experience required by the Conjurer, the second number is that required by any other class:

L 15 = 34940 / 20110
L 16 = 51770 / 28200
L 17 = 76680 / 39530
L 18 = 113550 / 55390
L 19 = 168120 / 77590
L 20 = 248880 / 108670
L 21 = 442700 / 183260
L 22 = 714040 / 287680
L 23 = 1365260 / 538290
L 24 = 2928190 / 1139750
L 25 = 6679220 / 2583260
L 26 = 15681690 / 6047680
L 27 = 37287620 / 14362290
L 28 = 89141856 / 34317352
L 29 = 213592013 / 82209504

In other words, it takes the conjurer more than 2.5 times the experience to reach Level 29 than it does any other character. And those points are harder to come by with weaker weapons and armor.

I haven't taken any of my characters to Level 32 yet but I'm working on it.

(Edit) I didn't vote in the poll because I didn't know whether or not you wanted to limit this to just the Trinity plugin or if you consider all plugins fair game. The answer to that will affect my vote. ~RD

Rubber Ducky, on Jan 4 2005, 03:16 AM, said:

2. Ranger. Requires more thought to play to advantage. Doesn't come into his prime until he is able to acquire the Great Wolf Claws. His woodsy potions require one to shop and plan in advance. The recipes for his "book of tricks" are not easy to memorize, so one has to write them down or keep referring to the book for help. The Ranger scenario does have a built-in cheat to get as much gold as you will ever need once you have mastered the Perugo Forest territory.

I was wondering if that cheat you mentioned was something done on purpose by the plugin developer or whether that was just something overlooked. It really does take the fun out of the game a bit. Unless one wants unlimited stats, which may be fun for a while.....

darebak, on Jan 4 2005, 04:09 PM, said:

I was wondering if that cheat you mentioned was something done on purpose by the plugin developer or whether that was just something overlooked.
View Post

I think it was a mistake. I think it was listed on the bug pages which never got fixed.

At lower levels, Swordsman beats all, but with plugins and high levels, nothing can match a conjurer. If the swordsman can't even come near the mage, and the mage is dealing out 300 damage per spell... or transforming into a deadly knight, or becoming superhuman (moki) the Knight has no chance. Rangers might be able to beat the mage, but it would be very hard.