D&D 5E [+] Ways to fix the caster / non-caster gap

[mamba]

Most everything he does in that opening scene has direct D&D analogues.

maybe, haven’t seen that in a while and no idea what he does there… I also was talking about Thor movies in general, not one scene from them

If you find one scene in which he escapes from being chained and whacks a giant with a mace, I have no issues with that part

And he's in the upper echelon of capability in the MCU.

and usually does a lot more than the above

 

[mamba]

I wouldn't mind seeing a more robust list of combat maneuvers that are available to anyone

if anyone = martials, I am ok with that, they need more, the casters need less

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh sure. I understand how genres don't generally need to balance caster and martial archetypes and frequently would avoid doing so to showcase the "power" of one vs the other.

The trouble is that dramatically asymmetric power at the table feels bad for those who expect their character to be a peer with other PCs rather than a sidekick.

So maybe it's not a great design goal to effectively model a genre with wide gulfs in power between character archetypes, when other options ate available.

What other options? I doubt you'll get full-throated agreement on going narrative.

 

[mamba]

And then we tailor accordingly. If we think the MCU is a good exemplar for the gameplay we want, then we should be considering MCU superheroes as the appropriate exemplars when designing class abilities.

big if, I definitely do not consider the MCU even remotely what I want, doesn’t mean there cannot be a two minute sequence in one movie that I am ok with…

 

[Micah Sweet]

if anyone = martials, I am ok with that, they need more, the casters need less

Level Up covers those kind of maneuvers well I think.

 

[mamba]

Level Up covers those kind of maneuvers well I think.

will check them out, now that 2024 is a bust and I will look into homebrewing more instead, I will look at several options to ‘steal’

 

[Gammadoodler]

The problem is, there are no high level martial example about which a plurality can be formed.

I'm not sure if you are saying no examples can be found or just that folks are never going to agree.

I'd find the first pretty dubious and the second isn't something we need to worry about on the message board.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm not sure if you are saying no examples can be found or just that folks are never going to agree.

I'd find the first pretty dubious and the second isn't something we need to worry about on the message board.

That second thing. If no one can agree on an example, then it's not useful.

 

[Gammadoodler]

What other options? I doubt you'll get full-throated agreement on going narrative.

Maybe look at genres that have martial and spellcaster protagonists as peers?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe look at genres that have martial and spellcaster protagonists as peers?

Superheroes?