I am playing in a game that is 16th level, but through a crazy set of circumstances basically turned into a monty haul style game. Each player has gotten access to millions of gold in equipment, more equipment than I have ever dreamed of as a player....and so of course the power scale has been through the roof.
But what's been most interesting is the effect its had on the Fighter vs Wizard balance. Normally at this level you expect for spellcasters to be a lot of the stars, with their game altering spells. However, what we have been seeing is the fighter and paladin are the stars of combat.
Our items combined with a bard that loves big inspire courage, has made us gods. There is no AC we cannot hit, and our damage is obscene. Most creatures we are plastering in 1-2 rounds. The fighter is the undisputed king of offense, and while my paladin is no slouch, all of my saving throws at 30+ (and with a ring of evasion and the ability to reroll 1s 3/day) means monsters just can't really hurt me. I don't think I've failed a save in the last 10 adventures.
Meanwhile our poor spellcasters still have to deal with extremely high monster saves and spell resistances.... and what's interesting is while there is tons of equipment and bard powers to boost attack rolls....there isn't all that much to bump spell dcs and SR. Don't get me wrong, compared to normal parties their saves are incredibly high.....but not compared to the CR class of monster we are now fighting (often CR 21+). Further, our access to equipment has given the fighters lots of counters to traditional magical gotchas....everyone has true seeing, fly items, teleport items, freedom of movement items, etc etc. So in general what we are seeing is that while the martials are always cutting monsters to pieces, the casters are often having spells fizzle to SR or high saves, and even when they are getting in a good effect....the control is not stacking up to the fact that we can just ginsu the creature in a single round anyway.
Now obviously the game was not balanced for our amount of loot (the amount is truly obscene), but its been interesting to see how much equipment (and the bard power) has tipped the scale in favor of martials even at this level.
But what's been most interesting is the effect its had on the Fighter vs Wizard balance. Normally at this level you expect for spellcasters to be a lot of the stars, with their game altering spells. However, what we have been seeing is the fighter and paladin are the stars of combat.
Our items combined with a bard that loves big inspire courage, has made us gods. There is no AC we cannot hit, and our damage is obscene. Most creatures we are plastering in 1-2 rounds. The fighter is the undisputed king of offense, and while my paladin is no slouch, all of my saving throws at 30+ (and with a ring of evasion and the ability to reroll 1s 3/day) means monsters just can't really hurt me. I don't think I've failed a save in the last 10 adventures.
Meanwhile our poor spellcasters still have to deal with extremely high monster saves and spell resistances.... and what's interesting is while there is tons of equipment and bard powers to boost attack rolls....there isn't all that much to bump spell dcs and SR. Don't get me wrong, compared to normal parties their saves are incredibly high.....but not compared to the CR class of monster we are now fighting (often CR 21+). Further, our access to equipment has given the fighters lots of counters to traditional magical gotchas....everyone has true seeing, fly items, teleport items, freedom of movement items, etc etc. So in general what we are seeing is that while the martials are always cutting monsters to pieces, the casters are often having spells fizzle to SR or high saves, and even when they are getting in a good effect....the control is not stacking up to the fact that we can just ginsu the creature in a single round anyway.
Now obviously the game was not balanced for our amount of loot (the amount is truly obscene), but its been interesting to see how much equipment (and the bard power) has tipped the scale in favor of martials even at this level.
