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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 6623664" data-attributes="member: 6775031">The big problem was the way 3.5 handled stats and magical items. Before you account for stats, it is as you say, and the EK doesn't seem so bad - two caster levels and 3 points of BAB aren't the end of the world.But the EK suffered from multiple-ability-dependency in the worst way possible. Since items gave a flat +bonus, and there was no upper limit on stats, the real difference was much larger. There is no such thing as enough Strength, or enough Int, because they just gave you more and more benefit as you stacked them. Compared to a regular Fighter, the EK was down ~6 points to hit (and ~12 to damage) and a bunch of feats. Compared to a pure Wizard, the EK was down ~5 points to its save DCs and a good chunk of spells per day.Don't get me wrong, you could put together a functional EK if you focused on buff-type spells to make up for your lower stats, and there were enough tricky gimmick spells by the end of 3.5 that you could even outshine a Fighter in straight combat, but out of the gate it was just a mess.The stat cap goes a long way toward evening the playing field.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 6623664, member: 6775031"] The big problem was the way 3.5 handled stats and magical items. Before you account for stats, it is as you say, and the EK doesn't seem so bad - two caster levels and 3 points of BAB aren't the end of the world. But the EK suffered from multiple-ability-dependency in the worst way possible. Since items gave a flat +bonus, and there was no upper limit on stats, the real difference was much larger. There is no such thing as [I]enough[/I] Strength, or [I]enough[/I] Int, because they just gave you more and more benefit as you stacked them. Compared to a regular Fighter, the EK was down ~6 points to hit (and ~12 to damage) and a bunch of feats. Compared to a pure Wizard, the EK was down ~5 points to its save DCs and a good chunk of spells per day. Don't get me wrong, you [I]could[/I] put together a functional EK if you focused on buff-type spells to make up for your lower stats, and there were enough tricky gimmick spells by the end of 3.5 that you could even outshine a Fighter in straight combat, but out of the gate it was just a mess. The stat cap goes a [I]long[/I] way toward evening the playing field. [/QUOTE]

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