Dimitri Mazieres
Explorer
Being aware of the power level difference between casters and non-casters, and knowing that there's no true "fix" besides re-building the 3.5 system, I was thinking about a few tweaks to the system to tone casters down a bit for a future campaign, and wondering how much would they impact the game and class (im)balance. I would like to read the comments of the well-versed people of this forum on the subject.
The changes, broadly speaking, would be:
To (full) casters:
- No item creation feats.
- No summoning spells, or summoning limited as per the Ravenloft setting rules: creature is trapped in the Material Plane, and will be probably very angry at the caster for this.
- Druid: No Natural Spell feat.
- Druid: No Animal Companion class feature
- Cleric: Cloistered Cleric variant? (I don't know about this one. I like the fighting cleric image
)
Non casters:
- Paladin: would work as the Pathfinder Paladin.
- Ranger: would work as the Midnight Wildlander or the Kobold Quarterly Spell-less Ranger.
- Fighter: would have numerous changes (more skill points, Con bonus to Ref & Will saving throws). Treat it, at first, as a Pathfinder Fighter.
- Rogue: Bonus Ambush feats (Complete Scoundrel), maybe bonus skill tricks (CS), maybe d8 Hit Dice, half Sneak Attack damage on those creatures invulnerable to critical hits under 3.5.
General:
- Feats as in Pathfinder (one every other level).
Thoughts?
The changes, broadly speaking, would be:
To (full) casters:
- No item creation feats.
- No summoning spells, or summoning limited as per the Ravenloft setting rules: creature is trapped in the Material Plane, and will be probably very angry at the caster for this.
- Druid: No Natural Spell feat.
- Druid: No Animal Companion class feature
- Cleric: Cloistered Cleric variant? (I don't know about this one. I like the fighting cleric image

Non casters:
- Paladin: would work as the Pathfinder Paladin.
- Ranger: would work as the Midnight Wildlander or the Kobold Quarterly Spell-less Ranger.
- Fighter: would have numerous changes (more skill points, Con bonus to Ref & Will saving throws). Treat it, at first, as a Pathfinder Fighter.
- Rogue: Bonus Ambush feats (Complete Scoundrel), maybe bonus skill tricks (CS), maybe d8 Hit Dice, half Sneak Attack damage on those creatures invulnerable to critical hits under 3.5.
General:
- Feats as in Pathfinder (one every other level).
Thoughts?