D&D 5E A simple houserule for martial/caster balance.

[Micah Sweet]

I would roll it into concentration. Any spell that needs longer than a round would mean your caster is basically concentrating on that spell and if they lose concentration due to damage, then the spell fizzles out. But I wouldn't put it on every spell, especially not at lower level. Would help keep certain spells to non-combat situations become they become too risky to cast in combat.

Well we HAD marking and the Defenders mechanics... but that was "too video gamey!" and fighters using "mind control!"

In all fairness, I do feel it was, "too video gamey", and it did feel like fighters were using "mind control". But, the problem it was intended to solve is still a problem. We just need another solution.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

OK, so your talking about a completely different game. So why are you ranting here in a 5e forum? There are general forums for that. Have you tried Exalted? That sounds like it would be more your thing.

Alternately, if your stuck with 5e like many people are, simply add those to your game. There is already a model for it after all: 4e. 4e gave those type of abilities to martials and the concept would be pretty easy to implement in 5e. Like 4e, just re-fluff spells to be martial exploits. I have seen some 3PP products that did this for 5e already (convert 4e martial powers to 5e).

However, you could do those things in the theoretical game I have been talking about and for some reason you seem to want to trash the idea despite it aligning somewhat with your sensibilities.

An Exalted warrior character is exactly what I want. I can already get that level by being a caster. Why is only one flavor of adolescent power fantasy acceptable? D&D wizards create a pocket dimension via Rope Trick at 3rd level... but throwing a cow at any level is too much? Doing basic fantasy moves like reflecting rays is too much? We had decent martial characters in Bo9S.

When will this Revenge of the Nerds mindset finally die off? Glad I can safely skip A5E. As I suspected, anything to improve martials would be scraps and casters would get even more love showered on them.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

In all fairness, I do feel it was, "too video gamey", and it did feel like fighters were using "mind control". But, the problem it was intended to solve is still a problem. We just need another solution.

Come and Get It emulated fantasy and story tropes. The ultimate sin for a fantasy storytelling game apparently.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Can they throw a cow? At what point can they jump 30+ feet? When do they get to select a class based method to fly or will their blades to light on fire? Can they reflect ray attacks with their shield?

I don't want the existing trash class with a few more ribbons. Magic items aren't a fix unless they are baked into the chassis or fighter types explicitly use them better, because everyone can get magic items.

Have you tried making your own mythic warrior, or finding one online? I'm sure they're out there. Then you can find a group willing to let your character in, or start your own group and run it as a DMPC. No other option is available to you.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Come and Get It emulated fantasy and story tropes. The ultimate sin for a game apparently.

Making any enemy abandon their position in favor of a suicidal charge is utterly ridiculous, imo,and clearly that of many others. Feel free to adapt it for your own game.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Have you tried making your own mythic warrior, or finding one online? I'm sure they're out there. Then you can find a group willing to let your character in, or start your own group and run it as a DMPC. No other option is available to you.

You forget hoping to make enough noise to drown out the group insisting on keeping fighter types lame when a new book/edition comes out.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Making any enemy abandon their position in favor of a suicidal charge is utterly ridiculous, imo,and clearly that of many others. Feel free to adapt it for your own game.

And yet humans make poor decisions in the real world all the time. I'm sorry people's imagination is so limited in a fantasy game of... imagination.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You forget hoping to make enough noise to drown out the group insisting on keeping fighter types lame.

There is not enough noise in the world to convince WotC to publish what you want. You're going to have to leave the safe starting area of officialdom and move into higher level zones. The challenge is greater, true, but so is the reward.

I do feel your pain though. WotC hasn't published what I want since about 2018.

 

[James Gasik]

And yet humans make poor decisions in the real world all the time. I'm sorry people's imagination is so limited in a fantasy game of... imagination.

Think about action movies. We love them. But how many times do you see gangs of enemies engage the protagonist one at a time? Why do we expect the fictional bad guys in D&D to be smarter?

Plus, there's the flipside- in real life, people can be taunted into making tactical blunders. So how should we model that?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Plus, there's the flipside- in real life, people can be taunted into making tactical blunders. So how should we model that?

Anyone who wants to taunt or banter distract someone should just get a magic item. Like in real life.