Quote Originally Posted by Vyanie View Post
As people have stated above balance is not about everyone doing the same exact thing the same way. Balance is about everyone being able to contribute meaningfully to a group. To put this into perspective I play a 3.5 game that both the DM and other players suffer from BNS (big numbers syndrome) and believe OMG 7th lvl rogue SOOO OPZZZZZ... because every once in a blue moon, I as the caster, take pity on him and let him do something.

For 7 levels I have literally dominated every single fight, every single social encounter and... well basically the entire game, but since i didn't put out a fist full of dice only one other player has really noticed. I wasn't initially doing this on purpose until 6th level when the dm kept saying "see look at all the damage the martials put out casters suck and martials are way to op." Now I am making it fully known that the party is not a group of martials with some lame caster following them around going pew pew, it is a GOD with some flunkies walking around to carry his stuff. Now some of the other players have looked back and are going... ohh, that was basically all you the entire time huh?

Without trying I had literally done everyone else job just by being a T1 caster. I had to show that in effect i was playing as a blind deaf mute to be on the same power level as them.... This was not fun for me and when I finally cut loose and said screw it the game was not fun for anyone else. THAT is what is wrong with the balance of the game.

The game at the moment is only semi balanced for those that suffer from BNS, once you get to be both a better DM and a better player you will see just how horribly broken the game is.
And even if your measure of power is throwing as many dice of as large a size as possible at as much as you can, a good caster is going to throw more, miss less, in a wider area, with less counters, and because spell slots tend to last longer than HP without casters doing all the work more staying power. There is no reasonable standard for effectiveness where casters don't win. Even spells designed to screw over magic itself are still best countered or otherwise worked around by casters because they screw magic item dependent martials too and the casters have actual tools.