D&D 5E [+] Ways to fix the caster / non-caster gap

[mamba]

A human that has bathed in the blood of fey, fiends, dragons, demons, maybe even gods by level 20. Who has been exposed to all kinds of elemental energies and magical effects. Who has used and been wounded by a wide assortment of magical objects. A human who has consumed a wide array of magical potions or alchemical elixirs. Or who may have been killed and brought back to life or reincarnated. A human who may have ventured into Heaven and Hell.

and yet none of their skills come from any of that, unlike Spiderman or The Hulk

Like this just isn't Bob the security guard whose only life experience is protecting a mall.

Did they have a more eventful life than Bob? Sure, but so did Brad Pitt and Elon Musk

 

[Gammadoodler]

I don't see radioactive spider or gamma rays on your list. ;-) How did being exposed to stuff work out for the original Mar-Vell?

I suppose the trick is exposed to and survived the exposure.

It would be rather darkly amusing if the untold epilogue for all D&D PCs is that they all contracted terminal cancer and died shortly after their adventuring career was over.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes and all that.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I don't see radioactive spider or gamma rays on your list. ;-) How did being exposed to stuff work out for the original Mar-Vell?

Being completely forgotten for decades on end until some old school fan gets a chance to write a one-off every once in a while?

 

[Gammadoodler]

and yet none of their skills come from any of that, unlike Spiderman or The Hulk


Did they have a more eventful life than Bob? Sure, but so did Brad Pitt and Elon Musk

1. Leveling up is based on experience, no? Experience you get from solving exotic problems with exotic solutions in exotic locations, facing down exotic enemies, etc.

2. Are we really comparing being very rich to traveling to other planes of existence, being resurrected, and engaging succesfully in direct physical confrontations with supernatural beings?

 

[Cadence]

1. Leveling up is based on experience, no? Experience you get from solving exotic problems in exotic locations, facing down exotic enemies, etc.

Or boring enemies?

2. Are we really comparing being very rich to traveling to other planes of existence, being resurrected, and engaging succesfully in direct physical confrontations with supernatural beings?

Supernatural beings, like high level martials who fought things from other planes and.... ?

 

[Micah Sweet]

A human that has bathed in the blood of fey, fiends, dragons, demons, maybe even gods by level 20. Who has been exposed to all kinds of elemental energies and magical effects. Who has used and been wounded by a wide assortment of magical objects. A human who has consumed a wide array of magical potions or alchemical elixirs. Or who may have been killed and brought back to life or reincarnated. A human who may have ventured into Heaven and Hell.

Like this just isn't Bob the security guard whose only life experience is protecting a mall.

None of that stuff is guaranteed by the system; it's all campaign-dependent, which means it isn't going to be codified in a general sense and any effects like you describe would be adjudicated on a case by case basis.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Or boring enemies?




Supernatural beings, like high level martials who fought things from other planes and.... ?

I suppose it is technically possible(?) to gain the requisite experience from slaying enough actuaries while waiting in line at the DMV.

Perhaps you should get more experience from not slaying them.

And sure, maybe fighting the bro who slew Asmodeus is some version of supernatural exposure for you.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I used to say it as a joke, but why do we even have Fighters at this point if people don't want them able to participate in the oh-so-important 3 pillars (that we can't have rules for one of them anyway because trying to RP a character with social capability above your own is bad and wrong), don't want them doing anything in battle more than attack reliably or repeatably, and don't want them narratively capable of fighting high level monsters by being more badass and powerful than just like... a guy.

Joke?
IMHO, 5e with 7 classes, instead of 13 classes, 7 of which are superior to the others, wouldn't really be better, but it would at least be more forthright.

Plus, the inferior classes, as mentioned above, could be retained as 3.5-style NPC Classes, that a player who was determined to, for RP reasons, and the party was ready to pull his weight/DM ready to adjust challenges accordingly could play if so desired.

Of course, if, say, Paladin were one of those classes and Fighter wasn't, it'd be nice to change the name to a the less obscure Knight, and include Oath of the Crown and Eldtritch Knight as sub-classes right in the PH. Oath of the Crown gives you a super-traditional, fantasy- fuedal, Knight In Shinning Armor, which should be as relatable as the benighted(pi) Fighter...

 

[mamba]

1. Leveling up is based on experience, no? Experience you get from solving exotic problems with exotic solutions in exotic locations, facing down exotic enemies, etc.

in theory I could kill a million Orcs in an arena too and get to the same level. The exotic exposure is not giving me XP. This is nothing like what happened to Spiderman

 

[Gammadoodler]

None of that stuff is guaranteed by the system; it's all campaign-dependent, which means it isn't going to be codified in a general sense and any effects like you describe would be adjudicated on a case by case basis.

Orrr..

We could generalize that whatever experience the campaign offered, it was sufficiently exotic to justify the capabilities the PCs recieve.

It's simple, clean, and matches up with the existing model for leveling up in D&D.