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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6562238" data-attributes="member: 996">Not that leading a niche market as tiny as TTRPGs is really all that successful, but, yes, D&D owes it's success to it's hallowed first RPG status and the fact no other RPG has mainstream name recognition.  Thus, new players most often start with D&D, and if they really can't stand it's flaws and foibles, they're at least as likely never to join the hobby as to go looking for something better. Thanks for your honesty.   In 5e, NPCs can be statted out as monsters rather than as PCs, so a DM can make an villainous wizard/witch/sorcerer/whatever just as scary as he needs.  The same was true in 4e, AD&D - really every ed except 3.x/Pathfinder.So, that's only been an excuse for the disparity between caster and non-caster PC classes in one edition - perhaps not coincidentally the one where that disparity is most pronounced.   Again, thanks for your honesty.  Your agenda here is that you want to dominate play with an overpowered caster.  Noted.  It's exactly the desire of players like yourself to ruin the game for others that makes the lack of class balance in D&D such an issue.  If everyone were content to let everyone else have their fun, too, such mechanical constraints wouldn't be needed. Pyrotechnics and Hold Portal.   Hardly requires overwhelming power. Never heard of 'em.  Even so, as impressive as 'obliterate' might seem compared to merely 'kill,' it doesn't accomplish a whole lot more.  Casters kill enemies in ostentatious, supernatural ways, martials kill enemies with cold steel.  Either way, the enemy is dead.  The disparity you see in genre isn't what you think it is.   - The overpowered uber-casters in genre are usually the villains.  Monsters don't have to follow the same rules as PCs.  Protagonists, especially those who are in an ensemble cast like the Fellowship, aren't nearly so out of line.- Where overpowered uber-casters /are/ protagonists, there are no non-casting protagonists sharing the spotlight with them, non-casters are relegated to victims and hangers-on of various sorts.  (Which, can work in a game that explicitly lays that out, like Ars Magicka.) - The powers actually displayed by casters in genre rarely stack up to their propaganda.  Exposition can go on and on about how powerful a villainous caster is, but when the chips are down, he can't just obliterate the hero with a thought, and can be defeated. - The implications of supernatural powers aren't as great as they may seem.  Casters, by definition, do things that are literally impossible.  Conjure matter and energy ex nillo, for instance.  While it's easy to think that being able to do one impossible thing implies being able to do almost anything or do so with vast power, that's not the case.  Conjuring a ball of soft light from nothing is impossible, it's supernatural - it's not powerful.  It won't light a fire like a torch, or hurt or even blind anyone.  A great many powers actually displayed by casters in genre are on that order.  They're impossible, but they're not powerful.  The bolt of lightning kills, but no more efficiently (perhaps less efficiently) than a well-placed arrow.  - Magic in genre also tends to be a lot less accessible, dependable, safe and controllable than in D&D.  Some of the most potent stunts pulled by casters in genre are a matter of a spell going wrong, or leveraging a devastating side-effect rather than using magic for it's usual purpose.  Things that are very much one-off for a variety of reasons.  Spells are more like rituals that take a long time or a lot of materials or collecting specific artifacts to complete.  - And, of course, the sheer breadth of D&D spell lists encompasses virtually anything a caster might do in genre, but individual casters in genre rarely actually display anywhere near such breadth, while D&D prepped casters can easily do so.</blockquote>

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