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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 8744389" data-attributes="member: 6775477">Having played every edition except OD&amp;D, I've seldom seen the complaints that most have made about the rift between the martials and casters. In BECMI and AD&amp;D, casters were slow to level, often being 2 or even 3 levels behind the rogue, and as mentioned the HP were a huge problem for survivability. 3E was were the issues were notable, but since my group at the time tended towards casters (including ranger and paladin), it didn't come up as often as it could have. 4E was the perfect balance between them, which was part of the reason some hated it.5E's disparity largely consists of the fact that the expected for of game (resource attrition) is not the most common form of play. Everyone uses skills as the primary method of resolving social and exploration encounters, but casters have the additional option of spending a limited resource to help. If the party is performing the expected number of encounters, these resources will dwindle until they're no better than anyone else outside of combat, and less useful in combat. Instead, in most games the casters can use some spell slots to help in non-combat situations, then still have plenty of spell slots left to nova in the 1-2 combats they face before a long rest. The solution requires a method of draining spell resources to match the expected amount of overall encounters for an adventuring day, but this either allows the casters to dominate non-combat encounters or artificially limits resources for no in-world reason. Adding an additional skill or two to all martials would help alleviate this, since they'd generally be more helpful in non-combat situations without spending resources (which is generally what martials are supposed to do).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 8744389, member: 6775477"] Having played every edition except OD&D, I've seldom seen the complaints that most have made about the rift between the martials and casters. In BECMI and AD&D, casters were slow to level, often being 2 or even 3 levels behind the rogue, and as mentioned the HP were a huge problem for survivability. 3E was were the issues were notable, but since my group at the time tended towards casters (including ranger and paladin), it didn't come up as often as it could have. 4E was the perfect balance between them, which was part of the reason some hated it. 5E's disparity largely consists of the fact that the expected for of game (resource attrition) is not the most common form of play. Everyone uses skills as the primary method of resolving social and exploration encounters, but casters have the additional option of spending a limited resource to help. If the party is performing the expected number of encounters, these resources will dwindle until they're no better than anyone else outside of combat, and less useful in combat. Instead, in most games the casters can use some spell slots to help in non-combat situations, then still have plenty of spell slots left to nova in the 1-2 combats they face before a long rest. The solution requires a method of draining spell resources to match the expected amount of overall encounters for an adventuring day, but this either allows the casters to dominate non-combat encounters or artificially limits resources for no in-world reason. Adding an additional skill or two to all martials would help alleviate this, since they'd generally be more helpful in non-combat situations without spending resources (which is generally what martials are supposed to do). [/QUOTE]

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