Casters vs. non-casters in your game.

[TanisFrey]

Right now in 3rd ed you only take an hour to memorize you spells for a day. You could bring back an old rule from 1st and 2ed edition on spell memorization times. In these older systems you had to rest for 8 hours (just like now) and then memorize spells at the rate of 1 spell level per 15 minutes.

The 18th level cast a 9th level spell yesterday, he needs to spend 2 hours and 15 minutes to re-memorize just that spell. This will make high level caster think twice about burring through all of their high level spells and having to spend the next 3 days doing nothing but re-memorizing spells. Add in random encounters and watch them worry about if every spell they cast is necessary. I would have sorcerer-types spend 15 minutes per spell slot level to refresh it.

The spellslinger remains powerful but allows the fighter-rouge types to shine in comparison during a fight.

 

[kimble]

The Divine metamagic cleric bit had to be one of the most anti-climactic things I'd ever seen. When a player tried it (I was a player and not the DM in the game). First time he tried the whole 24 divine might bit - first combat first spell was a dispell magic - bye bye divine might. 2nd time - he puts it up and for the next day - we fight wave after wave of undead. As he'd used something like 7 turn attempts to fuel the divine metamagic, intead of being better off we were in a world of hurt. It became a bit of a standing joke how useless the combo ended up being.

About Dispel Magic, yes, the GM started using it a lot. Then the player asked (a) how could be possible that every enemy we found, was able to use Dispel Magic? (b) All the players had magic items, so we would all 'shine' if someone tried to use Detect Magic on us. So why the enemies would always use Dispel Magic on him first?

About turns, yeah, sorry to tell you, but your friend didn´t know how that 'combo' works. To be 'effective', the cleric has to buy as many Extra Turnings (feat) as he can. So (a) he´ll be able to use as many spells as he wants and (b) he´ll be so overpowered, that he won´t need to turn undeads. He´ll be able to one-hit kill them.

 

[Dandu]

Good DMM clerics also jack up their caster level with things like Dispelling Cord

 

[Mort]

About Dispel Magic, yes, the GM started using it a lot. Then the player asked (a) how could be possible that every enemy we found, was able to use Dispel Magic? (b) All the players had magic items, so we would all 'shine' if someone tried to use Detect Magic on us. So why the enemies would always use Dispel Magic on him first?

Once you hit mid-high levels immediate dispel magic on the cleric/mage (or start with an area dispel) is a pretty good tactic for the enemy. Certainly subject to overuse of course.

About turns, yeah, sorry to tell you, but your friend didn´t know how that 'combo' works. To be 'effective', the cleric has to buy as many Extra Turnings (feat) as he can. So (a) he´ll be able to use as many spells as he wants and (b) he´ll be so overpowered, that he won´t need to turn undeads. He´ll be able to one-hit kill them.

The player in question was not a good optimizer by any stretch - so may have not used the combo near to its full potential. Still, when you put all your eggs in such a limited basket (especially when caster strength tends to be versatility over raw power) the schtick 1) gets old and 2) will eventually not work so well as in game counters are found (villains don't have to be total morons after all).

 

[kimble]

Once you hit mid-high levels immediate dispel magic on the cleric/mage (or start with an area dispel) is a pretty good tactic for the enemy. Certainly subject to overuse of course.

The enemy had do to a area dispel. That´s why we tried to never stay close to the cleric. And there are ways to protect yourself from dispel magic. Check Dandu´s link.

The player in question was not a good optimizer by any stretch - so may have not used the combo near to its full potential. Still, when you put all your eggs in such a limited basket (especially when caster strength tends to be versatility over raw power) the schtick 1) gets old and 2) will eventually not work so well as in game counters are found (villains don't have to be total morons after all).

Optimizers don´t really care about repetion. And the GM tried to counter the PC. And then the player would try to counter the GM´s counter.
What only made the situation worst. One would find a way to solve the problem the other created, and then the other woud create a another problem.

And while they were playing 'chess' with the rules, we were trying to survive the situtation. And sometimes the GM created something that could stop/hurt/kill the cleric. Those times, if the overpowered PC lost we couldn´t hold the enemy that did it. If he won, we would feel like sidekicks.

And either way, all that work only remembered us that the big damn hero was the cleric.

 

[Abraxas]

With one exception - no.

The exception was a 3.5E druid played by someone who went to the Char-Op boards to find a build that would dominate play. He no longer games with us.

I have run games in every edition to high levels (18+, except 4E - still in heroic, although the game i play in is in Epic). In the 3.5E Age of Worms campaign I ran I allowed players access to everything and didn't have any problem making all the players sweat. That AoW campaign did, however, demonstrate the fact that a rogue is easily marginalized.

The possibility of casters dominating play, IMO, is enabled by the number of spells that were added to the game to remove the caster's weaknesses.