Community Tiering for all 3.5 Base Classes

[Troacctid]

I'd classify it more as a straight up combat spell, but whatever. The point isn't that web is somehow multiple kinds of support. It's that web is one of several forms of support an adept can provide at that level. It's just the best one. At that level, they also have invisibility, as was noted, which is a defensive buff, an offensive buff, and a stealth enabler, mirror image, which, while personal, does its particular job really well, scorching ray, which is straight up direct damage and of a pretty good form at that (and it scales well, so it doesn't matter quite so much that you're running a 2nd level blasting spell) and so on. They can help their allies in a way that actually allows them to end combat faster, or directly act to end combat themselves, or do things that have nothing to do with combat.

The healer's list is ridiculously homogeneous by comparison. Those fourth level spells are actually a bit atypical in this way. The best non-healing spell they have at second level spells is probably calm emotions. The best at third level is either non-existent or maybe status, depending on whether you think status is a thing worth casting. Sanctuary, at first level, is at least kinda interesting, but it's a pretty rare thing, and the comparison between the two classes seems really adept slanted early on anyway.

The Healer might have a primarily defensive role, but at least it actually has the tools to perform that role fairly effectively without running out of gas after two rounds, and it scales up to become more versatile later on. Also, Sanctified spells can provide some more proactive options, like diamond spray, and hammer of whatsit, and that one light spell that damages and blinds evil creatures, I don't know, I'm AFB, you know the one I'm talking about.

Try running an Adept through some encounters, especially at lower levels, and you'll quickly run into problems because you simply don't have enough to do with your actions. I've only played them as a DM, but their typical play pattern tends to be either "Unload all your spells in one encounter because you're an NPC and you only have one encounter per day" or "Conserve resources by only casting one spell per combat, maybe two if the second one is 1st level, and then fire a crossbow for the rest of the fight." Sure, you can unload a lightning bolt or scorching ray...once. And then you're spent. It's not a role you can play on a consistent basis. Maybe you look okay in one encounter, but average out your performance over four encounters and it looks a lot less impressive.

My understanding was that this thread was for voting on tier and explaining your vote, not incessantly arguing your reasoning when others don't kowtow to your way of thinking. We already have several threads for that kind of stuff on the front page.

It's on-topic and civil. I don't see the problem. *shrug*