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

[Raiztt]

If it has men and women wielding swords killing a huge dragon

It does not. Zobal the archer and Cushara the pikebearer are very much mortal men.

 

[ECMO3]

Ultimately, balance is the reasonable compromise position. All classes balance, martial or magical. It's fair.

It may be fair, but it is not popular.

Go on startpgames or roll 20 forums and advertise a paid game with homebrew to nerf casters or buff martials and you will get very few players compared to advertising a RAW game.

You will even get a lot more Fighters and Monks signing up for a RAW game than you will a homebrew game that "balances" them with other classes.

There are popular homebrew rules - potions as a bonus action is popular, hand waiving hand switching mechanics is also popular. Mucking with the classes to balance them is extremely unpopular IME. Nerfing or banning OP spells is another VERY unpopular homebrew "balancing" mechanic.

 

[Vaalingrade]

All your examples I would consider supernatural and not mundane.

Wearing weighted clothing to get strong is supernatural?

Also, are we talking comics 'The Destroyer' Drax, or 'Does Whatever a Dave Batista Can' movies Drax? Is Dave Batista magic? It would explains some things...

 

[Gammadoodler]

Wearing weighted clothing to get strong is supernatural?

Incidentally 100% of "fancy swordsmen" are also supernatural.

 

[Tony Vargas]

DM thinks the plan is good...yaay you win..
DM thinks the plan is bad... booo you die..
Seems like the nature of the game becomes much more about who the players are and how they communicate with the DM than who their characters are and what they can do.

That describes the GURPS games I've been in. Mainly because we just had That One Guy who insisted on running GURPS back in the day, and that was his style. Certainly familiar from playing D&D, too, of course.

The last part is the sticking point for me. In that mode, you can play a character that is physically different from yourself, or has a supernatural power or few (if, say, a superhero) or many supernatural powers (D&D caster), but that's about it, you can willfully play a character who's less attentive or clever than you are, but not one that moreso, you can only play a character who is exactly as persuasive as you are good at persuading your DM. Ironically, it's limiting ...

 

[Tony Vargas]

Incidentally 100% of "fancy swordsmen" are also supernatural.

 

[tetrasodium]

Is it really 'Main Character Syndrome' when you're literally supposed to be an ensemble of Main Characters?

Yes mister Gown it absolutely is.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

Asgardians. Superman. Wonder Woman. Drax. Groot. Rock Lee. Pick a fancy swordsman.

Edit: I missed the "human" in there and have since chosen to ignore it as an irrelevant parameter.

Zoro from One Piece: He can slice any material. It's an understatement to say that he's powerful.

Shanks from One Piece: His presence is so powerful that people nearby fall unconscious.

Mihawk from One Piece: Can destroy a ship. With a sword.

 

[Micah Sweet]

View attachment 296494

"Supernatural. You keep using that word. I'm not sure it means what you think it means".

 

[Micah Sweet]

Zoro from One Piece: He can slice any material. It's an understatement to say that he's powerful.

Shanks from One Piece: His presence is so powerful that people nearby fall unconscious.

Mihawk from One Piece: Can destroy a ship. With a sword.

Not a big fan of anime, for the most part.