Can we build the math from the ground up? (And does Vancian help or hurt that?)

[Pex]

Hmmm… I hear this as "removing weaknesses", akin to "my Pyromancer can burn things immune to fire" and "my Telepath can control undead". Which… when you don't have to worry about a character's schtick being inapplicable, I suppose that does make balancing things easier.

"From a certain point of view" - Obi Wan Kenobi


Having a weakness isn't a bad thing, but it should be fun to deal with. When you can't participate in combat at all because your shtick doesn't work it's not fun sitting there doing nothing while others get to play. I've been there. Therefore the class needs a second shtick that's decent enough in contribution or the character can do something that lets his shtick work. There is a third option, but that's encounter design. The character does something else that's important while the combat he can't participate in is happening. It has to be something the player engages with each round on his initiative taking actions, not a passive it takes X rounds to do it so the party fights for X rounds taking a real world hour while the player is still just sitting there doing nothing and not physically playing the game even though his character is technically doing something.