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What martial options would make those characters feel equal to casters?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ath-kethin" data-source="post: 8279355" data-attributes="member: 6798775"><p>Since the beginning of time (roughly 1975), non-casters in D&D have felt like they couldn't equal casters in effectiveness or flexibility. In return, non-casters were intended to have a veneer of respectability and trustworthiness that casters couldn't match, raising legions of armies, building fortresses, etc. But with the WotC era essentially dropping or de-emphasizing non-mechanical aspects of character design as well as ditching followers and domain management, martials basically get to be the ones who wave pointy sticks while running, as casters teleport across the universe, raise people from the dead, charm gods, and lay waste to nations.</p><p></p><p>Some people have no issue with this dichotomy, but others feel that martial characters perpetually get the short end of the stick. Some solutions - such as giving martial characters spell-ish abilities to try and put them on par with the casters, have been met with indifference to outright hostility. So I'm curious: without handicapping casters (which is an option but one I think can be explored separately), what could we add to martials to give them a similar level of effectiveness and flexibility? This thread is meant to be brainstorming, and I welcome any thoughts on the matter. I'll kick off in a response below, which hopefully will be the first one but given the rate I type might not be.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ath-kethin, post: 8279355, member: 6798775"] Since the beginning of time (roughly 1975), non-casters in D&D have felt like they couldn't equal casters in effectiveness or flexibility. In return, non-casters were intended to have a veneer of respectability and trustworthiness that casters couldn't match, raising legions of armies, building fortresses, etc. But with the WotC era essentially dropping or de-emphasizing non-mechanical aspects of character design as well as ditching followers and domain management, martials basically get to be the ones who wave pointy sticks while running, as casters teleport across the universe, raise people from the dead, charm gods, and lay waste to nations. Some people have no issue with this dichotomy, but others feel that martial characters perpetually get the short end of the stick. Some solutions - such as giving martial characters spell-ish abilities to try and put them on par with the casters, have been met with indifference to outright hostility. So I'm curious: without handicapping casters (which is an option but one I think can be explored separately), what could we add to martials to give them a similar level of effectiveness and flexibility? This thread is meant to be brainstorming, and I welcome any thoughts on the matter. I'll kick off in a response below, which hopefully will be the first one but given the rate I type might not be. [/QUOTE]
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What martial options would make those characters feel equal to casters?
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