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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 5951154" data-attributes="member: 16586">This is a hard question to answer. In part I think you really need to respect the space of what defines the martial character. A fighter is not just someone who knows how to use a sword. They dedicate a significant portion of their mental energy towards different ways to kill people. They can see combat play out in their head before it happens. Martial  characters are hyper focused. No spell caster can match them in their area of expertise without dedicating a significant portion of their allotted power and then not for very long.Another element of the equation in my mind is removing the ability for spell casters to completely reinvent themselves everyday. They shouldn't be as focused as martial characters, but they should have to chose a couple areas to excel in. 5e Domains are a step in the right direction here. Generally I'm fine with plot magic like teleport, turn undead, planar travel, raise dead, some healing and the like. It's one area where casters can differentiate themselves without stepping on toes. It's spells like knock, long term invisibility, and powerful combat magic that make martial PCs blush that I take issue with. Spell casters should have an edge in a single encounter, but not too strong of one.Another area that can easily improve upon things as they stand is to embrace the supernatural elements of hybrids like monks, paladins, etc. You can justify a lot more interesting abilities if a paladin is more than a fighter with smite evil and a few weak divine spells. Give them some flexible mechanics all their own. The final element for me is the level playing field of mechanically interesting play. Skill use and combat need to at least be as interesting of a challenge for fighters and rogues as spell management is for casters. Through whatever mechanical means martial PCs need the ability to make interesting decisions that have real opportunity costs. Smart play needs to be rewarded from all participants.This is good stuff. I'd XP but I need to spread. Part of the issue here is that so far there has been reluctance for the rules to address what is happening in the wider fiction. I think at a certain level you need to move past the game rules only handling personal action resolution. I favor something similar to FantasyCraft's Reputation mechanics with an edge given to martial characters to reflect that they're more active in the world than spell casters tend to be as absorbed in magic and religious politics as they tend to be.I'm also a fan believe it or not. Probably wouldn't be interested in playing a game like that, but it makes for good fiction. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the fact that Eadric occupies the same level of relevance in the fiction as a near godling as Mostin does.</blockquote>

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