Who cares about balance, this is not a MMORPG, just play with no items and hardcore mode or something.
I want rule the world as a wizard god.
This conversation has been about challenge, not balance. Balance is making sure different classes and abilities have appropriate costs and drawbacks so nothing is so overly powered that it eclipses other classs and abilities. Challenge is making sure that the game is appropriately difficult throughout from start to finish. You shouldn’t need to artificially impose a lot of restrictions on yourself in order to find a satisfying challenge. I say this as somebody who regularly ascribes myself rules to increase or alter the difficulty of the games I play.
