Unified Systems

For the record the majority of this will be written in regards to 4th edition D&D even though I feel it applies equally to all gaming systems that hold a high regard for game balance.

In 3rd ed there was a chart in the DMG suggesting the amount of damage that a spell of any given level could deal given its area/range.  Things like this help make the game more reasonable.  For instance it can be concluded that lvl 1 encounters should never do more than 3(W) damage and when they do they come at a cost as can be seen in Paladin's Heedless Fury (why does a defender get such a move?) or the Barbarian's Avalanche Strike.

If games were built with these guidelines it would be better for the game as a whole.  Power creep would be easier to spot, knowing that powers tend to be of approximately the same power would be nice especially for new players, and best of all players/dms could make new powers with far less concern that they are breaking the game.

Damage is of course the easiest thing to balance as utility is very hard to place in a balance spectrum.  For instance flight seems better than climbing, but they become very similar in areas with low ceilings.  How good a -2 or +2 to hit is extremely variable based on the current encounter.  Adding a healing surge at the cost of damage is a complicated trade.

So while I believe these unified systems are superior I admit that it is difficult to achieve, specifically in regard to feats.  That said the utter absence of a unified system is clearly bad for the game.  It leads to powers, feats, class features, and magic items that far outstrip other options.  In my perfect (and somewhat unrealistic) world optimization boards would be largely unnecessary.  Each option should be a good option so that playing even the same race/class combo multiple times can be a fulfilling option.  I feel few game designers share my dream.  In several cases simple arithmetic can tell that powers are unbalanced.  I've never been sure how things like these get on to anything other than scratch paper let alone published books.