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

[Micah Sweet]

Realism applied selectively isn't realism.

Yes, that's why we've been forced to change it to verisimilitude.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Are these all the kind of things that would be ok?

They sold their soul to Orcus and beat out 100 others who did the same in a contest of the damned.
They were the spawn of a far realms thing and a succubus.
They spent 500 years studying the ritual in the temple of eternal Darkness.

Yes, provided those things happened in the setting and weren't explicitly offered up as excuses why the PCs can't do it.

 

[Cadence]

Yes, provided those things happened in the setting and weren't explicitly offered up as excuses why the PCs can't do it.

Why can't it be both something in settings and coincidentally a reason why every power hungry young adventurer on the planet hasn't gained that world threatening power in a fairly straightforward and commonplace manner?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Any given sorcerer could be the first of a new bloodline, as a result of a pact or some other exceptional circumstance.
(Emphasis mine - and no the pact doesn't make them a warlock. "I'll do this for you in exchange for a blood transfusion" doesn't give you Eldritch Blast, just magic)

It totally does though...

 

[Lanefan]

Quite the opposite, characters in the game don't see the mechanics, so the mechanics don't matter to their perceptions.

For instance, a 1e fighter with a sabre and a 1e Dervish with a scimitar would compare notes and conclude that they are both human and that their weapons are quite different, yet the fighter is a player character using the fighter attack matrix, and the Dervish is a denizen of the MM, using the Monsters' attack matrix, and their weapons are absolutely identical in game terms.

If they're both Human then they're both Fighters. (1e got this wrong IMO, having the playable species written up both in the PH and in the MM, as all it did was create confusion and inconsistencies like the one you just brought up)

 

[TwoSix]

Yes, provided those things happened in the setting and weren't explicitly offered up as excuses why the PCs can't do it.

Why can't that have happened in the NPC's backstory?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why can't it be both something in settings and coincidentally a reason why every power hungry young adventurer on the planet hasn't gained that world threatening power in a fairly straightforward and commonplace manner?

Is it actually a coincidence, or a reason given when a PC asks, invented in the moment? That's what I was asking.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why can't that have happened in the NPC's backstory?

It could. I don't want it be offered as an excuse because the DM wants to restrict the PCs abilities.

 

[TwoSix]

It could. I don't want it be offered as an excuse because the DM wants to restrict the PCs abilities.

I'm not sure I understand the distinction. Are you as a player expecting proof that my NPCs backstory actually happened the way I said it did?

 

[Eric V]

I have literally solved this problem with an elegant house rule already, posted in it's own thread. But people definitely don't care about real solutions otherwise they'd be talking about those instead of trying to engage in arguments.

Honestly, why are you here in a + thread?