Maybe lol. Or maybe D&D can have non-casters and casters emulate the same genre. Right now we have super casters and weaksauce non-casters. Gandalf lobbed like 6 spells total and they mostly sucked. THAT's the kind of character to adventure alongside Boromir. If we're playing a game of magic superheroics, the martials should be superheroes too.
Spoken as if 5th edition didn't exist and to a great extent ameliorated the issue.
No, spoken /about/ 5th edition. The contrast between the power displayed by Gandalf in genre vs higher level wizards in D&D (eg "Gandalf was a 5th level Magic-User) is quite pronounced, whether you're talking 0e, 1e, 3.x, or 5e.
It really isnt the problem it used to be. In fact, it's one of 5th editions greatest successes, how fighters remain relevant and useful to parties of any level.
It is the problem it used to be, in kind, just not quite as bad in extent. Fighters in 5e start wondering why they bother showing up around 13th or 15th instead of 7th (3.5) or 12th (1e).
4E was the closest we got to fixing the issue. Unfortunately it wasn't a success, because players who were spoiled on 3E just flocked to Pathfinder, who showered casters with even more goodies like a newly divorced dad. 4E gave narrative control of tactical combat to non-casters in a way that actually simulated the genre, while severely limiting casters non-combat utility.
5E removed narrative abilities from everyone but casters, and then gave casters more back. It's actually a regression IMO.
Nod. The issue was fixxed, the fix rejected and the issue triumphantly re-introduced in a slightly toned-down form. Acknowledging both that it's still an issue, and that it's an issue dear enough to the hearts of enough D&Ders that 5e intentionally built it back into the core rules is only fair. It's not going to be 'fixed' in the standard game, it can't be fixed by adding a balanced martial class (maybe 4, completely obsoleting the Fighter & Rogue in the process), but it should at least be acknowledged.
No, I don't want to play 4E, I want 5E actually balanced and fighters/rogues/warlords to get to do cool things again. That should be easy enough to do.
It'd require introducing some sort of 'martial power' supplement that replaces the fighter, rogue & berserker with a set of martial classes amped up to the level of casters. Or a 'low-magic' setting that replaces casters with something nerfed to the point that it would look up at the 3.0 Adept in awe.
5e is imbalanced the way it is, by design, to evoke the (probably at the time) accidental imbalances of the early game, that, going uncorrected for so long, have become enshrined as tradition or 'classic feel.' If we play D&D at all, it's because we exploit, revel in, enjoy, accept, tolerate, are in denial of, feel nostalgic for, or just like complaining about that, not because we really want or expect it to change.
