Aenghus
Explorer
One guideline I have for my own game is that if I as DM can't think of (at least) three different ways for the PCs to deal with a problem, it's probably a single-point-of-failure roadblock and needs to be rethought.
Players, lacking the DM point of view, often don't see some or all viable solutions due to various reasons such as imperfect information, having a bad day, misunderstandings, poor communication, missing players, or not being invested in the problem and wanting to go somewhere else.
Conversely, they often come up with completely unanticipated solutions, some of which are so good they just work, some of which have varying chances of success and some of which aren't viable.
Sometimes they come up with something that shouldn't strictly work due to hidden info they aren't privy to, but is so awesome it's worth changing the setup so that it does work.
I find that too many failures drains the morale of players, and may indicate a lack of understanding of the true situation and perhaps a need to discuss things OOC.
As for any tests or duels, I find the initial conditions, assumptions (particularly unspoken assumptions) and gamestyle of the test are very subjective and severely prejudice any findings.
Spellcasters are better off the more infomation their players have about the setting. They work better in an ongoing campaign where the adjudication style and tastes of the DM are well known. Knowing the subset of monsters the DM uses and their weaknesses and strengths, typical dangers and how to prepare for them beforehand, the way magic works, availability of magic items, magic item creation rules, character generation rules etc etc. Non-spellcasters, especially fighters, work better when parachuted blind into an arbitrary setting, as they have less to work with and better inherent defences and raw hp.
A major contributer to the strength of mid and higher level spellcasters in 3.x is spell DCs improve with a higher casting stat, and feats can stack the DC higher. 3.x casters get more spells than in previous editions. So save or suck/die spells are more likely to work (especially if targetted at a weak save) and the casters can have more of them.
Another is being able to rely on scrolls and wands for a bunch of utility magic, healing wants etc. Restricting or banning these weakens spellcasters.
Players, lacking the DM point of view, often don't see some or all viable solutions due to various reasons such as imperfect information, having a bad day, misunderstandings, poor communication, missing players, or not being invested in the problem and wanting to go somewhere else.
Conversely, they often come up with completely unanticipated solutions, some of which are so good they just work, some of which have varying chances of success and some of which aren't viable.
Sometimes they come up with something that shouldn't strictly work due to hidden info they aren't privy to, but is so awesome it's worth changing the setup so that it does work.
I find that too many failures drains the morale of players, and may indicate a lack of understanding of the true situation and perhaps a need to discuss things OOC.
As for any tests or duels, I find the initial conditions, assumptions (particularly unspoken assumptions) and gamestyle of the test are very subjective and severely prejudice any findings.
Spellcasters are better off the more infomation their players have about the setting. They work better in an ongoing campaign where the adjudication style and tastes of the DM are well known. Knowing the subset of monsters the DM uses and their weaknesses and strengths, typical dangers and how to prepare for them beforehand, the way magic works, availability of magic items, magic item creation rules, character generation rules etc etc. Non-spellcasters, especially fighters, work better when parachuted blind into an arbitrary setting, as they have less to work with and better inherent defences and raw hp.
A major contributer to the strength of mid and higher level spellcasters in 3.x is spell DCs improve with a higher casting stat, and feats can stack the DC higher. 3.x casters get more spells than in previous editions. So save or suck/die spells are more likely to work (especially if targetted at a weak save) and the casters can have more of them.
Another is being able to rely on scrolls and wands for a bunch of utility magic, healing wants etc. Restricting or banning these weakens spellcasters.
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