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Message: <blockquote data-quote="d12" data-source="post: 1045350" data-attributes="member: 657">Why should any of us aim at objectivity?  We aren't journalists, we're roleplayers.  So, I like the fighter/mage concept.  That doesn't mean that I'm incapable of making an assessment on whether or not the EK is balanced.  I found the fighter/wizard too powerful in 2ED compared with the other classes.  In 3.0 it was very much on the weak side, even with spellsword as an option.  The EK seems balanced to me in 3.5 and yes I have decided that I like it.  If someone could convince me it was broken then I wouldn't play one and woundn't allow them in my game.  I haven't closed my mind on this issue but at the same time no one has convinced me that this is too powerful.  When it comes to comparing character classes you shouldn't compare how they fare against each other (i.e. EK against Barbarian in a death match) but rather does one dominate the action in a room full of ogres?  A dragon?  Undead? Elementals?  Is one so much more powerful than the other that the player of the crappy PC feels slighted?Take a look at the character I posted earlier.  A 10th level barbaran half-orc built with 32 point buy and with 50,000 gp worth of gear could have a str of 18 easily.  With the +4 Guantlets that goes to 22.  He's still got lots of points to sink into Con and Dex too.  With the right items he would be soooo very scary.  Would the EK be better than the barbarian? Sometimes.  But not all the time.  I would bet the barbarian would die less for one.  My example EK is pretty fragile - espcially against spells requiring a reflex save.  He runs into three 6th level gnoll sorcerers with fireballs and smart tactics and he might just buy the farm.  The barbarian shakes off that damage and starts chopping off heads.  You point out all those spells he can use to buff with but PCs don't always have time to buff.  Sometimes they get surprised.  Sometimes they get woken up in the night by packs of wolves.  There are precious few rounds in combat to cast all those spells.  The barbarian just stands up, says "Naaaaaaarg!" and....starts chopping off heads.  Now me, I like the fact that I could turn into something else and fight.  But eventually my EK is gonna run out of spells - or at least good spells.And all those spells you named are indeed supercoolpowerfulwowwowwow.  But the wizard gets em all two full levels before the EK.  In my experience when spells turn a big combat they are usually the highest level spells theoretically available to the party. So, sure Harm or Disintegrate takes out the BBEG when the PCs are all 11th level.  The best spells the EK might have at that point is Cone of Cold or maybe Feeblemind.  Plus he's going to 2 behind the Cleric or Wizard in beating SR.  In the face of that nasty demon he might be better off casting true strike + power attack (repeat), rather than actually trying to penetrate SR.As to the statement "The problem is, the EK appeals to people who want to be better than all fighter-types in their field of expertise : combat - which he quite easily would be, with Polymorph and buff spells at his disposal."   Well, the EK appeals to me and I don't think it will be better than the fighter types in combat under most situations.  If I wanted to dominate combat situations I'd make a barbarian or a fighter or an arcane archer.</blockquote>

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