D&D 3E/3.5 D&D 3.5 - Are full casters overpowered when compared to melee characters?

[kitcik]

Not if the DM does his job well.

Well, I agree with that, but I would still vote "yes."

Here's why - if the DM has to go out of their way to create balance by intentionally making encounters challenging to particular classes, that's an indication that those classes are overpowered compared to the classes they don't have to specifically plan for.

 

[Dandu]

Monks, for example, have so many class features that it is hard to design a situation in which they are not useful!

 

[xigbar]

Monks, for example, have so many class features that it is hard to design a situation in which they are not useful!

I heard the Truenamer is really good as well.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Well, I agree with that, but I would still vote "yes."

Here's why - if the DM has to go out of their way to create balance by intentionally making encounters challenging to particular classes, that's an indication that those classes are overpowered compared to the classes they don't have to specifically plan for.

And I agree with that.

But I don't have to go out of my way to create balance by intentionally making encounters challenging to full casters (or any other classes in particular). So I suspect that DMs who do find themselves having to do so are going about things differently than I am.

 

[Endur]

I voted no.

I think it all depends of the edition and the circumstances.

Fighter vs. Wizard in an arena
If this is 1e, Fighters are very gear dependent, and gear doesn't really matter for the wizard. So in a high gear situation, the fighter can be very powerful. In a low gear situation, the wizard might shine.

etc., etc.

Do I think that spell casters are awesome? Absolutely. They are fantastic.

But fighters, rogues, etc. have their uses as well.

D&D (before 4e) is not as balanced as WoW, but its not as nerfed as 4e either.

In classic AD&D, fighters have better HP and better AC than wizards. A wizard could die in a suprise round to an attack the fighter would barely notice.

On the other hand, the wizard can do amazing things with Wish and other spells.

 

[trancejeremy]

I think the trouble with 3x is that it basically got rid of a lot of the limitations on spell-casters, as well as changed the leveling scheme of the game which brought the more powerful spells into play much quicker (I mean, I think my highest 1e character ever was 12th, while it's not hard to hit 20 in 3x).

All the metamagic feats. Nerfing the dangerous aspects of spells (like how Teleport basically had a chance of killing the wizard, instead only doing a slight amount of damage), % of knowing spells, changing spell resistance , etc.