D&D 5E (2014) A simple houserule for martial/caster balance.

[overgeeked]

To build up rather than tear down, you can make short rests take 5-minutes and have as many as you'd like in a day. That would boost martials without hampering casters.

 

[ECMO3]

And Rogues even moreso than any of the others.

Poor Rogues.

The 5e rogue really emphasises to me how people read the problem with sneak attack in 3.5 wrong. The issue was not that the rogue sometimes couldn't use sneak attack because some monsters were immune to it, or they couldn't get into flank. The issue was that without sneak attack the rogue has nothing else.

I do not think it is true on a Rogue.

A Rogue generally has a ton of non-damaging options through his subclass and does mediocre damage even when he gets sneak attack. Maybe on Assasin it is centered around at will damage, but that is a poorly designed subclass.

Now I have seen a lot of players want to just "go hit it" with a Rogue but that is not the best way to fight IMO as a Rogue.

The Rogue chassis is optimized for out of combat use to start with (and it excels there). As a class you really need to be creative in combat if you want to keep up with your buddies. When the party is in a fight they are playing checkers while the Rogue is 3 moves ahead playing chess.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I think I might say you can use jinxes prof. bonus times per day, seems to be the way things are moving.

We considered that as well, but I like the recharge (an underused feature IMO) instead. It adds a bit more randomness and excitement to the encounters. Players of course are happy when it recharges.

 

[ECMO3]

If this is what you believe, well I've got some real estate you might be interested in...

Every survey I have seen lists Fighter as the most often played class and that is my anecdotal experience as well in games I have played personally. It could all be "fake news" and part of some grand conspiracy against Fighters but I don't think it is.

Do you have any sources suggesting this is not true?

 

[dave2008]

Every survey I have seen lists Fighter as the most often played class and that is my anecdotal experience as well in games I have played personally. It could all be "fake news" and part of some grand conspiracy against Fighters but I don't think it is.

Do you have any sources suggesting this is not true?

The popularity of the Fighter is not the issue. Believing its popularity means it should be nerfed is the issue.

 

[dave2008]

We considered that as well, but I like the recharge (an underused feature IMO) instead. It adds a bit more randomness and excitement to the encounters. Players of course are happy when it recharges.

I get that, I just don't like adding die rolls. As the DM I take them out of my monster attacks generally.

 

[dave2008]

To build up rather than tear down, you can make short rests take 5-minutes and have as many as you'd like in a day. That would boost martials without hampering casters.

Good point. We use 5 minute short rest (hold over from our 4e days) and I didn't even think of it as a balancing feature.

 

[ECMO3]

The popularity of the Fighter is not the issue. Believing its popularity means it should be nerfed is the issue.

What else can we do so less people choose fighters and the game is more "balanced" between the classes?

IF we make Fighters more powerful or other classes weaker this will likely get even worse and become more lopsided with even fewer people choosing other classes.

What is your solution to truely balance the game better so there is a more even distribution among players choosing each class? Anything else is not really balance, it is just window dressing for people to support their own personal prejudices or biases.

 

[dave2008]

What else can we do so less people choose fighters and the game is more "balanced" between the classes?

IF we make Fighters more powerful or other classes weaker this will likely get even worse and more lopsided with even fewer people choosing other classes.

What is your solution to truely balance the game so there are roughly equal numbers of players choosing each class?

I have no desire to try to make people choose an equal distribution of classes. No one, except I guess you, is referring to that bizarre metric when they talk about balance.

 

[Mordhau]

The desire to even out the balance of classes is what got us Codzilla.