In 1E & 2E magic, and Wizards were the undisputed masters of the the high levels. 3.5 changes that I think. Warrior types are the rulers of damage and have big HP totals.
Attack bonus increases are easy to come by, and in general the only checks a warrior needs to make to inflict damage is the to hit roll, and possibly a concealment miss chance. Of course a Warrior can roll to hit all day long.
Spellcasters on the other hand often have to make a ranged touch attack, Beat SR, Beat Concealment, and hope the opponent misses their saving throw.
The more dice you have to roll, the more chances you have for something to go wrong.
The power payoff seems off as well. I saw a Warmage cast a Sudden Empowered Disintegrate for 157 points of damage.
The session before I saw a Keen Scimitar wielding warrior critical hit 4 times for 215 damage. Damage in 3.5 seems to be less about the number of dice rolled, but more about how much of a solid modifier you can apply.
I regularly see a Divine Might, Power Attacking, Paladin hit for 117 damage, and when you add in Smite Evil and Bless Weapon, that damage goes up fast.
The archer in the group will Manyshot, or full attack for around 80 damage.
Spells just do not keep up in terms of damage dealt. The best spells seem to either be save or die, or should have some sort secondary effect to the damage.
This is kinda a big paradigm shift in terms of D&D balance. While I like the fact that warriors are potent at high levels, spells seem to lag behind, in terms of sheer damage dealing.
Attack bonus increases are easy to come by, and in general the only checks a warrior needs to make to inflict damage is the to hit roll, and possibly a concealment miss chance. Of course a Warrior can roll to hit all day long.
Spellcasters on the other hand often have to make a ranged touch attack, Beat SR, Beat Concealment, and hope the opponent misses their saving throw.
The more dice you have to roll, the more chances you have for something to go wrong.
The power payoff seems off as well. I saw a Warmage cast a Sudden Empowered Disintegrate for 157 points of damage.
The session before I saw a Keen Scimitar wielding warrior critical hit 4 times for 215 damage. Damage in 3.5 seems to be less about the number of dice rolled, but more about how much of a solid modifier you can apply.
I regularly see a Divine Might, Power Attacking, Paladin hit for 117 damage, and when you add in Smite Evil and Bless Weapon, that damage goes up fast.
The archer in the group will Manyshot, or full attack for around 80 damage.
Spells just do not keep up in terms of damage dealt. The best spells seem to either be save or die, or should have some sort secondary effect to the damage.
This is kinda a big paradigm shift in terms of D&D balance. While I like the fact that warriors are potent at high levels, spells seem to lag behind, in terms of sheer damage dealing.
In our climactic encounter to an Epic-level game, our outcome was not decided by Enchanted steel - it was decided by anti-magic fields! If magic were not so important, we wouldn't have been able to even arrive at the final battle, and the enemy wouldn't have prepped a half-dozen AMF spells to try and take us out.
