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

[CreamCloud0]

It'd be even easier and better for the media literacy and fiction as a whole for that justification to be 'lol, nope'.

The search for justification in fiction that doesn't care about it is how we get Midichlorians.

okay everyone, let's hear all of your worst 'midichlorians' justifications for why the fighter can do incredible things, my explaination is that there's a hidden god of martial capabilities that no-one knows about who warps reality every time a martial tries to do anything to make it possible for that specific person in that specific instance to do what they're attempting!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

okay everyone, let's hear all of your worst 'midichlorians' justifications for why the fighter can do incredible things, my explaination is that there's a hidden god of martial capabilities that no-one knows about who warps reality every time a martial tries to do anything to make it possible for that specific person in that specific instance to do what they're attempting!

The Rule of Cool is one of the fundemental physical Laws, along with basic Newtonian physics and significant personal acts of magic requiring spellcraft.

 

[Vaalingrade]

okay everyone, let's hear all of your worst 'midichlorians' justifications for why the fighter can do incredible things

Let's got straight 7th Sea ruins an entire class of characters on this:

The Devil linked all human muscles to the seal the keeps him out of the world. Every time you use your muscles, it syphons power away from this seal and whenever you do something fun and awesome, it syphons an order of magnitude more. So it turns out every martial character is unknowingly helping The Devil.

 

[Gammadoodler]

okay everyone, let's hear all of your worst 'midichlorians' justifications for why the fighter can do incredible things, my explaination is that there's a hidden god of martial capabilities that no-one knows about who warps reality every time a martial tries to do anything to make it possible for that specific person in that specific instance to do what they're attempting!

A cabal of wizards upon an extraplanar shoreline codes into fighters' being a...difference..from the mundane warriors around them.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

The party Cleric summoned some invisible angels to stealthily do everything for the Fighter, so they wouldn't feel bad about themselves.

 

[Aldarc]

It's that kind of thinking that got us into this mess.

It's that kind of thinking that made D&D a successful roleplaying game.

 

[Cadence]

okay everyone, let's hear all of your worst 'midichlorians' justifications for why the fighter can do incredible things, my explaination is that there's a hidden god of martial capabilities that no-one knows about who warps reality every time a martial tries to do anything to make it possible for that specific person in that specific instance to do what they're attempting!

As they gain experience martials subconsiously learn to tap into other uses of the invisible forcefield that stops their lifeforce from running away (aka their hitpoints).

 

[Tony Vargas]

It's that kind of thinking that made D&D a successful roleplaying game.

Nah, the kind of thinking that made D&D the only successful rpg was more like: "my parents don't understand me, I think I'll dabble in Satanism, should I go Heavy Metal or D&D..? ...meh, stereo components are expensive..."

(not really, it was more properly the thinking of media types reporting steam-tunnels in sensationalized ways and making Mazes & Monsters, but I feel like 80s kids should get some credit, since it's a largely ignored cohort, and it was just funnier than blaming "da media")

 

[Neonchameleon]

I explained my definitions above. Fiction is the in-universe setting, while narrative is making a good story. I like help from the rules for fiction, but don't want it for narrative.

And we've an entire thread on asking what narrative mechanics even are - especially when Apocalypse World is one of the best games around for getting narratives, grew out of the Forge, and is almost entirely devoid of what many call Narrative Mechanics.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I’m not sure I buy evem the claim that it offered…

I mean, you can count the sub-classes yourself. I was going by memory of the PH, alone, I could have been off.
But, it does seem like D&D has always offered more spell-casting choices than non-casting. That surely seems like it could be relevant to the martial/caster gap, and maybe even how to fix it.

(it could also, sadly, explain away the fighter's popularity, as just, fewer alternatives.... like, if half of players wanted to play casters, and half not, then the original Fighting Man would inevitably be the most popular class... and the ratio of martial:caster classes has changed over the editions, and is at a it's lowest ever, now... but it's never offered more non-caster choices than caster.)