D&D 5E How to "fix" (or at least help) the fighter/wizard dynamic. (+)

[jmartkdr2]

In all the high-level games I'm in (and I'm in 2 right now with one that ended a couple months ago) - I just don't see the issue. In combat, fighters do a lot more damage and that's the only way to drop bosses. Even disintegrate doesn't one-shot anything.

Out-of-combat, no one's limited to class features, so class makes only a small difference. Fighters have allies and magic items and so on to do what they want to do.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Try to mitigate the disparity through setting?

The populace distrusts magic; all social interaction are given a higher difficulty rating for those who are known to wield magic. Yes, even bards.

Limit the amount of caster classes available; increase the number of Martial classes available.

Trinkets that will only attuned to non-casters. These trinkets give spell like abilities X amount per day

 

[payn]

In all the high-level games I'm in (and I'm in 2 right now with one that ended a couple months ago) - I just don't see the issue. In combat, fighters do a lot more damage and that's the only way to drop bosses. Even disintegrate doesn't one-shot anything.

Out-of-combat, no one's limited to class features, so class makes only a small difference. Fighters have allies and magic items and so on to do what they want to do.

It seems like the problem rears its head when the fighter turns on the wizard.

 

[Laurefindel]

An other things I'd like to experiment with at one time; currently, spells all recharge at the same rate regardless of their power or level. Many spells wouldn't be as problematic if they were one-offs (or you know, had some kind of time-dependent resource for them), part of the problem would fix itself.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Try to mitigate the disparity through setting?

The populace distrusts magic; all social interaction are given a higher difficulty rating for those who are known to wield magic. Yes, even bards.

Limit the amount of caster classes available; increase the number of Martial classes available.

Trinkets that will only attuned to non-casters. These trinkets give spell like abilities X amount per day

Pretty much any setting with heavy discrimination against PCs is begging to have whole swathes of the population rightly slaughtered by PCs that aren't going to take that.

 

[Remathilis]

Try to mitigate the disparity through setting?

The populace distrusts magic; all social interaction are given a higher difficulty rating for those who are known to wield magic. Yes, even bards.

Limit the amount of caster classes available; increase the number of Martial classes available.

Trinkets that will only attuned to non-casters. These trinkets give spell like abilities X amount per day

Fine if your setting is Dark Sun, terrible if your setting is Eberron.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Tiers of play definitely. It allows earlier levels to remain more grounded whilst recognising that high level characters are mythic heroes that don't need to be bound by the limits of the real world. It also perfectly fits to one of the most recognisable aspects of D&D, the journey from zero to hero. And it doesn't need any weird parallel and optional mechanics, nor a massive class bloat, both of which would just confuse new players.

 

[jmartkdr2]

It seems like the problem rears its head when the fighter turns on the wizard.

Is that, like, supposed to happen? After a couple years of working together as a team the fighter just one day decides to challenge the wizard to a duel?

 

[jmartkdr2]

Also: tiers of play already exists in 5e: 1-4 "mundane" (you're not more powerful than town guards), 5-10 heroic, 11-16 paragon, 17-20 epic.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Pretty much any setting with heavy discrimination against PCs is begging to have whole swathes of the population rightly slaughtered by PCs that aren't going to take that.

Fair enough.There are some players in my past that would do exactly that. This approach assumes that the players buy-in to the idea.