i am taken aback... I have seen people argue they are not OVER powered (and I disagree) but I have never seen someone say they are too weak?
Too weak for what they should do at the exp they have. The problem is not that the martial are not as versatile as the casters. It is that the martials level at the same pace as the casters. The difference in exp chart was there for a good reason.
why? Why is it good that no martial character without magic even at 20th level can have the versatility and power of a 5th level spell useable by 1/3 the game at level 9?
Simple. Magic is magic.
Over the years, the differentiation between the leveling of martials and casters got gutted. This leads us to this problem where for the same exp, one class gets better versatility than the other. Martials should've get some trade offs such as: "A bit more skills, bonuses to social skills/challenges. A bit more bonuses with weapons or being encouraged to have varied weapons for different situations."
Now, fighters are stuck being one trick poneys. Choose the fighting style you want. Choose the corresponding weapon and that is all. I would have liked to see fighters with more than one fighting style (beside champions I know) and having to actually be able to be great at more than one fighting style.
that doesn't work either. And if you look at the 2e (I don't know about 1e) charts it didn't even work then.
Ho but it worked. It really worked. Most campaign would end around level 11. Check the exp chart of 1ed.
The fighter would be 11th level, and be around 69 hp assuming only +1hp/level (average).
Our MU would be 12th, would have 32 hp. The average fighter would have specialized in a weapon for +3/+3 and at this level, gauntlet of ogre's power were not to wild to imagine. This fighter would attack about 2 times per round, and assuming long sword +2 would do on average 16 points of damage killing the mage in one round and hits were almost assured as with the long sword, the fighter was +2 to hit unarmored opponents.. Now, almost impossible to do. Everyone almost always have at least +2 hp/level... Ho... And good luck to the MU to cast if that fighter was in hand to hand...