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View Full Version : [3.5] Yet another fix for casters/non-casters balance



KevLar
2008-09-03, 06:18 PM
So, in another thread, I read this:

My DM allowed me to take a major bloodline to help neutralize the power of my druid! I took Djinni, and am mastering air elemental summoning (have an elemental companion and everything.) The 3 level loss of spells without the accompanying caster level loss was appealing. The synergy was nice (as was the bonus to Wis!) and allowed my druid to not completely overpower the rest of the party while still being a ton of fun to play.
... and liked it. Looks like a good way to nerf full casters without disappointing them at all - they get goodies in return, and they don't lose caster levels. Also, justifying it fluff-wise is a piece of cake: you have to be an otherwordly being's descendant to be a caster. It makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

So, expanding on this idea, would it be logical to require a major bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) for a full-caster, and an intermediate bloodline for half-casters? Or perhaps minor. Hmmm.. this needs a little tweaking maybe, not all half-casters are equally powerful, some may not even deserve a nerf-bat at all.

Question 1: What do you think about this fix? Would you happily play a caster with this houserule? Does it address the balance issue a bit?
Question 2: Would you go after half-casters too, or leave them in peace?
Question 3: If you wanted to nerf more, would you rule that bloodline levels don't count for caster level? Or would that be too much?

PS- The goal here isn't to achieve complete balance (which is kind of impossible in 3.5, and perhaps not even desirable for some). It's simply to bring casters roughly on the same boat with non-casters, without spoiling their fun.

Jack_Simth
2008-09-03, 06:22 PM
Eh, the thread probably goes in homebrew, but that doesn't matter overly much.

There's a fundamental problem with being behind - he's short spell access.

This isn't as critical when it's the party arcanist - but it gets very annoying when it's the party divine caster - because it's the Divine caster that gets most of the "day after" spells that fix negative levels, ability damage, ability drain, Blindness, curses, and other long-duration nasty status effects. Being short one of the Cleric's "day after" spells when you need one really bites.

Xyk
2008-09-03, 09:29 PM
So by this the full casters get 9th level spells as a capstone ability? That makes more sense to me anyways. This works fine to me.