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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7812953" data-attributes="member: 996">The Primacy of Magic is not a complaint, but an observation.  Up to 3.5, at the earliest, having a magic weapon at some point became absolutely critical - without it, you'd be completely unable to affect a variety of not-that-uncommon enemies who were quite hard to escape and could do /horrible/ things to you.  In 3.5 and 5e, it's still /highly/ desirable, compared to punching through resistance, but 3.5 had the added layer of weapon composition to consider (you could end up with quite the golf-bag).   In 4e, even a trait like insubstantial doesn't convey utter immunity, and resistances are rarely to untyped (which includes weapon) damage (ironically, in 4e, more than any other edition, you're virtually guaranteed that magic weapon, unless Inherent Bonuses were in use - C'est la D&D).  So, a non-magical class generally needing magic weapons to contribute meaningfully/at-all to certain combat encounters is support for the Primacy of Magic.Both magic items and casters figure into the Primacy of Magic - or Magic Dependency, if you prefer.  They figure a little differently in different still-D&D editions.  Magic items are more a build resource in 3e than in any other really-D&D game (unless you count PF1 as separate from 3e), for instance, but they're still /very/ important, and, yes, can be especially so when there's no casters to provide magic.  By the same token, casters are very important, but in a setting where magic items are extremely rare, even for PCs, or even non-existent, they're that much /more/ important.Ideally, I'd prefer "balanced with" to "as effective as" - I'd expect the effectiveness of a wizard & fighter to be very different in nature.   But, yes, ideally class balance should not be contingent upon one class having access to found items.   For instance, the effectiveness of a Ranger vs Warlock or Artificer vs Warlord or Fighter vs Paladin, assuming corresponding 4e-style formal Roles, should be quite comparable, whether both had items or neither did.</blockquote>

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