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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6216967" data-attributes="member: 4937">Sure you can.&nbsp; If you are familiar with AD&amp;D, you ought to be able to see where some of the problems came from.&nbsp; For example, the DR problem was a result of too much diversification in modes of overcoming DR combined with being at times too generous about the scale of DR provided to monsters.&nbsp; This created too much gear dependency that spellcasters didn't have.&nbsp; And it's notable that out of the box, you don't get feats that give fighters inherent ability to overcome DR.&nbsp; For example, what if you had a feat that basically meant, &quot;Any time a fighter wields a weapon, it's as if he cast Greater Magic Weapon on it.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; Or what if you had a feat that said, &quot;Any DR which can be overcome is reduced by 15 when you attack.&quot;&nbsp; So if you have something like &quot;DR 30/epic&quot; or &quot;DR 30/obsidian&quot;, and you happen to be holding a +4 cold iron sword, you aren't completely useless.&nbsp; If you want to fold something into the fighter's class abilities to avoid feat tax, it should be that sort of thing.&nbsp; Likewise, on serious problem high level fighters face is things like Force Cage and Wall of Force.&nbsp; But what if you rewrote those spells to instead quantify how immune they were to damage instead of just giving them blanket immunity.&nbsp; If a Wall of Force had hardness 100, it would still do its job, but it would not be an insurmountable obstacle because &quot;if it has stats we can kill it&quot;, and because you could have feats like &quot;Smash Things Good&quot; that &quot;Half the hardness of any unattended object you attack.&quot;&nbsp; The problem is that too often spells don't have stats, so until they do, the feat doesn't address the problem.&nbsp; And incidently, that sort of feat gives Fighters more problem solving ability.&nbsp; It turns 'hitting things' in to a viable solution in the way that Disintegrate can also be an out of combat problem solving ability.&nbsp; Likewise, if the problem is the action economy, what if Fighters not only had good saves versus things like Paralyzation, Petrifaction, and so forth, but they actually could &quot;shake it off&quot; either with shortened durations or second chances?&nbsp; What if Fighters could cancel magical fear, moral penalties, or charms on their allies, or at least provoke rerolls?&nbsp; What if you could buff allies like a Bard, or debuff enemies - say attack the target AND give the target a -2 penalty on its saving throws to help out the spellcaster?&nbsp; What if depending on your build you could do all of this just 'at will' and some of them as free actions?&nbsp; Whose dominating the action economy now?Or movement.&nbsp; Ok, you can Teleport - that's hard to beat on one level.&nbsp; But I have a natural movement speed of 60', a natural climb speed, a natural swim speed, can leap over 20' obstacles or 40' wide pits and run for 20 hours without tiring without the need for magic.And so forth.The point is that you can make the martial classes as epic as the spellcasters already are, without gimping spellcasters completely and without the need to get into continual power creep (because the spellcasters are already beyond in 3.X where I'm going to let them reach, and late 3.X monsters were designed with this in mind anyway).&nbsp;&nbsp; I haven't got things exactly where I want them yet, because I need play testing at higher levels, but I'm pretty sure with some tweaks its going to work pretty darn well.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6216967, member: 4937"] Sure you can. If you are familiar with AD&D, you ought to be able to see where some of the problems came from. For example, the DR problem was a result of too much diversification in modes of overcoming DR combined with being at times too generous about the scale of DR provided to monsters. This created too much gear dependency that spellcasters didn't have. And it's notable that out of the box, you don't get feats that give fighters inherent ability to overcome DR. For example, what if you had a feat that basically meant, "Any time a fighter wields a weapon, it's as if he cast Greater Magic Weapon on it." Or what if you had a feat that said, "Any DR which can be overcome is reduced by 15 when you attack." So if you have something like "DR 30/epic" or "DR 30/obsidian", and you happen to be holding a +4 cold iron sword, you aren't completely useless. If you want to fold something into the fighter's class abilities to avoid feat tax, it should be that sort of thing. Likewise, on serious problem high level fighters face is things like Force Cage and Wall of Force. But what if you rewrote those spells to instead quantify how immune they were to damage instead of just giving them blanket immunity. If a Wall of Force had hardness 100, it would still do its job, but it would not be an insurmountable obstacle because "if it has stats we can kill it", and because you could have feats like "Smash Things Good" that "Half the hardness of any unattended object you attack." The problem is that too often spells don't have stats, so until they do, the feat doesn't address the problem. And incidently, that sort of feat gives Fighters more problem solving ability. It turns 'hitting things' in to a viable solution in the way that Disintegrate can also be an out of combat problem solving ability. Likewise, if the problem is the action economy, what if Fighters not only had good saves versus things like Paralyzation, Petrifaction, and so forth, but they actually could "shake it off" either with shortened durations or second chances? What if Fighters could cancel magical fear, moral penalties, or charms on their allies, or at least provoke rerolls? What if you could buff allies like a Bard, or debuff enemies - say attack the target AND give the target a -2 penalty on its saving throws to help out the spellcaster? What if depending on your build you could do all of this just 'at will' and some of them as free actions? Whose dominating the action economy now? Or movement. Ok, you can Teleport - that's hard to beat on one level. But I have a natural movement speed of 60', a natural climb speed, a natural swim speed, can leap over 20' obstacles or 40' wide pits and run for 20 hours without tiring without the need for magic. And so forth. The point is that you can make the martial classes as epic as the spellcasters already are, without gimping spellcasters completely and without the need to get into continual power creep (because the spellcasters are already beyond in 3.X where I'm going to let them reach, and late 3.X monsters were designed with this in mind anyway). I haven't got things exactly where I want them yet, because I need play testing at higher levels, but I'm pretty sure with some tweaks its going to work pretty darn well. [/QUOTE]

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