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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6073381" data-attributes="member: 22424">Well, first up, I really don't like the 'tier' system. It has some elements of truth in it, but the arguments used to establish that are badly flawed. In particular, the author's dismissal of most counter-arguments by saying that that other person is clearly just better at optimising some classes than others, while failing to recognise that that also applies to himself is rather ironic.That said, there is some truth in its conclusions - and in particular, those spellcasters are indeed more powerful than other characters, especially when supplements are used.It's not just scrolls. Primary spellcasters have pretty much exactly the wrong number of spells per day - too few at the lowest levels and too many at the highest. Plus, by crafting scrolls (or that wand of cure light wounds) they can effectively bypass the Vancian casting that is the primary balancing factor of the classes.Additional problems:- Non-casters gain power at a little more than a linear rate. Casters gain power on three different axes - they get more spells per day, they get access to higher-level spells, and all their existing spells become more powerful as well.- Non-casters are more gear-dependent than Casters... and yet it is Casters who actually have the ability to craft the items that they need. (That said, the treasure tables favour "items for non-casters" in found treasure.)- The range of supplemental material has heavily favoured Casters. Improved options for Non-casters have been much thinner on the ground, and have frequently taken the form of replacements for older Non-caster options.There's a lot of truth in this. A great many of the abuses come about because the spells aren't applied exactly as written. I became quite sensitive to this because I was "fortunate" enough to have one player who would always be quick to tell me all the good stuff his spells could do, and yet would somehow always 'forget' all the limitations and side-effects. Plus, he was prone to all manner of "logical" extrapolations of spell effects, neglecting to consider that the reason it's magic is that it's not logical.Studiously applying all of those restrictions and not allowing extrapolations that aren't written in the spell descriptions goes a long way towards fixing the problem.The other thing that heavily favours Casters is the fifteen minute work day - if the Casters can safely nova and then rest, they'll obviously outshine the Non-casters. However, if the other members of the group (including, but not limited to, the DM) refuse to humour this approach then the Casters are forced to shepherd their resources better.(Unfortunately, this makes using published adventures much harder, because these usually assume optimised play, which in turn means using the 15mAD.)--Ultimately, if I were inclined to 'fix' 3e, I would do so by:- merge all the Non-caster classes into one (turning Rage, Sneak Attack, and even the monk's Unarmed Combat into feat/power chains).- Add more higher-level feats, so that Non-casters get vastly powerful abilities at higher levels. (The effect of these two is to make Non-casters both more flexible and also to boost the one bit of their progression that is above-linear in nature.)- Remove all level-dependent variables from spells. That is, a fireball does 5d6 damage, regardless of the level of the Wizard. These can still be boosted with metamagic, but only with metamagic. (This eliminates one of the three axes by which a Caster gains power with level, reducing them from a cubic to a quadratic progression - the same as Non-casters.)- Give the Casters more spells at lower level, and far fewer spells at high level.- Change scrolls and wands so that instead of giving the Caster a "free cast" of the spell, they instead allow him to spontaneously cast the appropriate spell by sacrificing another of the same level.- Re-write item crafting so that it actually has the mathematical rigour that it currently pretends to have. Also, open item crafting up so that any character can potentially craft items.- Go through the spells and magic items with a fine tooth comb. Most of them are now (probably) fine, but I would feel the need to check.</blockquote>

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