Competitive Balance: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

* [[Lady of War|Erza Scarlet]], [[Fairy Tail]]'s resident [[Magic Knight]], uses her magic like this by swapping out various types of armors [[Crazy Prepared|according to whatever the situation calls for.]] So far we've seen [[Lightning Bruiser]] armor ([[Shock and Awe|literally]] at one point), [[Mighty Glacier]] armor, [[Fragile Speedster]] armor, and [[Stone Wall]] armor.

* The Servants of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' are balanced in principle, but it's generally acknowledged that Knight-class Servants are a bit ''better'' balanced. Mages find ways to stack the deck in their favor, particularly the Einzberns, who are consumed with Heaven's Feel preparations for decades.<ref>This example could go under video games, if there are enough examples in the genre to warrant the category.</ref>

 

* The multiple forms of Heisei-era [[Kamen Rider]]s (and the various Riders summoned by ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'') work this way in a [[Live Action Television]] version of this trope.

* ''[[The Amazing Race]]''. The early seasons heavily favored physically strong teams, however, as the producers have gotten much better at designing courses, the Race is now much more balanced, even slightly favoring intelligent teams [[Muscles Are Meaningful|(though most fans still tend to think that the big, strong teams have a huge advantage)]].

 

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'': generally clerics are stone walls, fighters are almighty glaciers, rogues are fragile speedsters, and sorcerers and wizards are squishy wizards. Outside of the four "basic" classes barbarians and monks are lightning bruisers, paladins and rangers are magic knights, and bards and druids are jacks-of-all-stats (and masters of none) to different extents. There's quite a bit of room for customization in there though.

** In terms of actual balance though this falls apart very quickly depending on the edition. In 3.5 the archetypes are quite well represented, but mean nothing because the Wizard, Archivist and Erudite classes exist relegating everything else to the role of porters. In 4th edition the archetypes were the basis for the class system's design, which lead to everything being equal in balance, but a loss in the diversity of classes being based on: Melee guy who chops, melee guy who gets chopped, Guy at Range With Weapon, Guy at Range With Magic, Healbot.

 

* The four bending arts in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' work this way according to [[Word of God|numerous]] [[All There in the Manual|sources]].

** [[Fragile Speedster]]: Airbending

** [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Optimus Prime, Megatron and Skyquake (the latter two being generally kept out of fights by various plot devices due possessing [[Game Breaker]] level strength)

 

* [[Truth in Television]]: Equipment and fighting styles in Roman [[Gladiator Games|gladiator matches]] were highly regulated to ensure an entertaining fight, and it was very common for a gladiator of one school to go against one of another—provided the two were compatible. For example, a common matchup had a retiarius—a [[Fragile Speedster]] armed with a trident and net—up against a secutor—a [[Mighty Glacier]] with a huge shield and small sword.