At which levels do casters get to do things which martials cannot?

[eunwoler]

If possible I'd like to comprehensively chart out the rough points at which casters can do X thing that martials (with 0 spellcasting) have no answer for out of their own class features. e.g. magic items or DM fiat doesn't count. Highlighting particular spells and/or the outcomes they lead to that are inaccessible to martials would be very helpful

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5
Teleportation

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

Level 11

Level 12

Level 13

Level 14

Level 15

Level 16

Level 17

Level 18

Level 19

Level 20

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Where to start....

1. Benign Transposition (teleport); Faerie Fire (detect invisible creatures); Detect Magic; Identify; Magic Weapon (overcome DR/Magic); Summon Monster/Nature's Ally/Undead (summon minions); Silent Image (make illusions).

3. Swift Fly, Alter Self (flying form); Arcane Turmoil (dispel enemy buffs); Silence (interrupt enemy spellcasting without allowing a concentration check).

5. Animate Dead (create permanent undead minions);

9. Revivify (raise the dead);

[Saintheart]

Level 1.

Glitterdust. Impose blindness on an opponent.
Inhibit. Force the opponent to take no actions until your next turn.
Magic Missile. Guaranteed damage to target without having to render the target helpless for a coup de grace.
Drain an opponent's levels, via Ray of Frost metamagiced with Fell Drain.
Expeditious Retreat: move further and faster than one's default movement speed without using a double move or Run action.

[AvatarVecna]

Lvl 1: Quick Healing

If you don't have a cure-capable caster in the party, your options for healing are 1 HP/lvl by resting for 8 hours, or 2 HP/lvl by resting for 8 hours with somebody providing Long-Term Care. There's also the Troll-Blooded feat, which gives Regeneration 1. It requires Toughness as a pre-req, and can only be taken at lvl 1, and is specific to certain Faerun regions, and it's from frequently-banned source Dragon Magazine. So in most games, it's gonna be illegal, and in the games where it's not, it's locked to a particular region in a particular campaign setting, and DMs might make a stink about access. If you're from one of those Faerunian regions, it's still got a ****ty feat tax, and the level requirement means it's that much harder to get your hands on. And it only works for the PC who has it, so unless the whole party has the feats, they're still probably taking multiple long rests after every mildly difficult fight. For the vast majority of PCs, that feat isn't feasible, and the next time a feat like it becomes feasible is Epic Levels (the Fast Healing feat).

Cure Light Wounds, meanwhile, is available from lvl 1 to every cleric in existence, a solid percentage of whom can cast it spontaneously. If a cleric decides they want to use their slots in such an unoptimal way, they can hyperfocus on healing and become terrifying for anybody who has to try and murder the party, because they just won't stay down.

Lvl 1: Tactical Teleportation

Benign Transposition (Sor/Wiz 1) teleports two willing creatures to switch places with each other as a Standard action. The range is okay, and is useful for rearranging the battlefield.

Additionally, a conjuration-specialist Wizard can choose to give up their familiar for Immediate Magic - in their particular case, the ability to [Int mod] times per day spend an Immediate Action to teleport a short distance. In common play, this is used to escape a dangerous situation before the danger can affect you - avoid falling into a pit you just triggered, dodge 10 ft back so that this trap or melee attack can't reach you anymore, teleport behind total cover so that archer can't shoot you...there's lots of possibilities here.

Lvl 1: Creating alchemical equipment

Craft (Alchemy) is only available to magic-capable characters. Alchemist's fire, holy water, everburning torches, thunderstones, tindertwigs...you're either buying them, or you're borrowing from an allied crafter mage, or you're **** out of luck.

Lvl 1: Crafting magic items

If you're a gnome, and you join the Golden Helm Guild, and you gain enough affiliation score, you can act as if you possessed the Craft Magic Arms & Armor feat and had CL equal to half your character level (or your full character level, for higher affiliation). This doesn't grant you the ability to meet any other prerequisites though, so if you can't cast spells, even this shuts off something like 99% of magic item crafting. And it's still only the one.

Casters, meanwhile, can qualify for at least one crafting feat as early as lvl 1 - and in fact, one such caster in core starts with that feat for free.

Lvl 1: Dealing with ghosts

Incorporeal enemies are immune to nonmagic weapons, and resistant to magical ones. If the incorporeal enemy in question is undead (which 99% of them are), they can also be harmed by holy water, an alchemical item that noncasters cannot craft. Monk is technically a noncaster, but has many magical abilities, including Ki Strike (Magic), which allows them to punch ghosts without any reliance on outside assistance. Beyond that...this is caster domain. It's also possible you could try to deal with the ghosts via conversation and assisting them in their final business, whatever that may be. This is something noncasters can do (the talking part anyway - the final business itself might be beyond their capabilities, or it might not be).

[Kelb_Panthera]

Between 2 - 5 levels before the martials do get to do it after all because wbl is a thing.

Realistically, though, there's almost nothing the magic users can do that the non-mages can't. Magic just makes it faster and easier, generally. The only really notable exception is directly interacting with magical things like curse breaking.

Tactical teleports; martial study.

Long-range teleport; walk, climb, sail, or fly. You'll get there eventually.

Planar travel; natural rifts and portals exist. If the gm made you need it, you shouldn't have to spike a spell known on it anyway even if you are a caster.

Flight; flying races, non-magical vehicles, and mounts are all things.

Fireball; explosive packs and siege weapons.

And that's without even resorting to magical gear that just directly mimics spell effects when it's very much a system expectation that the PCs -will- get magical gear.

[Kris Moonhand]

They asked for things martials can't do using their own class features, Kelb.

[Kelb_Panthera]

They asked for things martials can't do using their own class features, Kelb.

Yeah but the question is built on a bad premise. It's like asking what can dedicated casters do with their race, wealth, and feats but ignore spells and class features.

Nobody plays just a class and nothing else, even if playing a human wizard might feel like it sometimes.

[eunwoler]

Between 2 - 5 levels before the martials do get to do it after all because wbl is a thing.

Realistically, though, there's almost nothing the magic users can do that the non-mages can't. Magic just makes it faster and easier, generally. The only really notable exception is directly interacting with magical things like curse breaking.

Tactical teleports; martial study.

Long-range teleport; walk, climb, sail, or fly. You'll get there eventually.

Planar travel; natural rifts and portals exist. If the gm made you need it, you shouldn't have to spike a spell known on it anyway even if you are a caster.

Flight; flying races, non-magical vehicles, and mounts are all things.

Fireball; explosive packs and siege weapons.

And that's without even resorting to magical gear that just directly mimics spell effects when it's very much a system expectation that the PCs -will- get magical gear.

None of these things are remotely relevant. Balance refers to the differences between the classes and how they manifest in the game, like the unique things that the class of the Wizard or Druid does that the Barbarian and Fighter class does not. These problems are not negligible just because they can be accomplished outside of individual class resources; in that case, the game itself is simply a function of the intentions of the DM. By DM fiat any PC can be equally powerful regardless of their class, true.

At that point why have classes themselves? People play these classes to tap into their individual class fantasies and the perks that come with and to that extent fighters can do none of those things you have listed.

Every class in the party has equivalent access to wealth and base feats. The difference in gameplay is everything else and that's obviously the point of discussion. I don't really know why you decided to come in here with an agenda ladled post when you're smart enough to see that you're derailing.

[NigelWalmsley]

Long-range teleport; walk, climb, sail, or fly. You'll get there eventually.

The entire point of Teleport is to get there faster than eventually. "Walk there" fails challenges like "get to the fortress and lift the siege before it falls".


Planar travel; natural rifts and portals exist. If the gm made you need it, you shouldn't have to spike a spell known on it anyway even if you are a caster.

The GM makes you need it because you have the ability to do it. Yes, your GM could design all your adventures so you don't need to have any ability to actually do things so that martials wouldn't be sad because they can't do things, but that would be stupid because the point of the game is to use your abilities to do things.


And that's without even resorting to magical gear that just directly mimics spell effects when it's very much a system expectation that the PCs -will- get magical gear.

And equally it is the system assumption that martials will use that gear to get level appropriate combat numbers. You barely have enough WBL to do that without resorting to ridiculous levels of dumpster diving, you're not also going to be able to supply any meaningful utility. And even to the degree that you can, it's obviously inferior to simply being a caster who can have both money and utility abilities.