Would this help to balance casters with non casters?

[truekender]

House Rules:

Arcane Casters: Channeling arcane energy is tiring.
when casting a spell using their highest level slots (3rd level spell for a 5th level wizard for example) the caster must make a DC 5 + spell level fortitude save or become fatigued (if already fatigued, then exhausted).

Divine Casters: Must worship a deity and all spells are requested during prayer. The caster prepares a number of spells equal to her Wisdom modifier (only one of which can be from her highest level of spells) and the rest of the spells are selected and granted by the deity.

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I feel that this might balance out the disparity of power between casters and non-casters (plus there's fluff to go with it).

[Chrono22]

No, because removing or ignoring those conditions is easy. The divine caster nerf seems overly harsh. If you are going to lower spells/day, do it across the board. This modification would make so that no one would want to play a divine caster.

I find a very simple and easy fix, is to allow combat-oriented classes to advance their initiator level according to their base attack bonus. This doesn't entirely close the gap, but it changes the shift in the balance of power from level 5-6 to about level 10-12.

[Sir_Elderberry]

The second one seems like a route to DM/player conflict.

[Kylarra]

House Rules:

Arcane Casters: Channeling arcane energy is tiring.
when casting a spell using their highest level slots (3rd level spell for a 5th level wizard for example) the caster must make a DC 5 + spell level fortitude save or become fatigued (if already fatigued, then exhausted).

Divine Casters: Must worship a deity and all spells are requested during prayer. The caster prepares a number of spells equal to her Wisdom modifier (only one of which can be from her highest level of spells) and the rest of the spells are selected and granted by the deity.

-

I feel that this might balance out the disparity of power between casters and non-casters (plus there's fluff to go with it).

It's not very good at fixing anything. The arcane one is essentially a 5% chance to become fatigued, the DC is simply too low to matter for anything.

The divine one is too close to a screw you for being a divine caster. Better to just use this to limit divine casters.

[Private-Prinny]

For Arcane Casters: Generally, the power of spells is much better than the slight setback of someone who isn't in melee being fatigued. It also doesn't help when the save DC is trivially low.

For Divine Casters: This one could actually work, but keep in mind that there are plenty of singular broken spells, and if you consistently hand the party cleric a heap of Cure spells when they're taking levels in Ordained Champion, you'll have a problem on your hands. Really, you're smacking the divine casters with the nerfbat a lot harder than the arcane ones.

Also, how does this houserule interact with metamagic? Divine Metamagic? What do you do with spontaneous divine casters (Spirit Shaman, Favored Soul, Shugenja)?

[JoshuaZ]

The divine caster one seems potentially problematic- presumably deities know a lot and want their clerics to succeed right? So in that case, deities should be giving to their clerics the optimal spells for that day.

[Steward]

The divine caster one seems potentially problematic- presumably deities know a lot and want their clerics to succeed right? So in that case, deities should be giving to their clerics the optimal spells for that day.

No, they won't. The deities are controlled by the DM, who won't want the cleric to overpower all challenges. What'll end up happening is that the Cleric will wake up, having been granted by "the gods" 20 copies of Curse Water for no reason.

If you really want to screw Divine Casters, remove all of their non-Cure X Wounds spells. Yes, it'll make the game completely infuriating for them, but at least you won't have to come up with many house rules or write interesting challenges!

[0Megabyte]

Silly answer: Play 4E instead.

Really, the balance problems in 3.5 are huge. They're set into the very fabric of the system: To get rid of them means to change that system almost completely. What you're recommending is just a band-aid, a quick and dirty fix of the sort that's "not fun."

So save yourself the time. Use a system that's more balanced. I'm not just saying 4E, or saying 4E is perfect. I love 3.5, but if you want something balanced it seems a better bet to look elsewhere.

After all, there would be a lot of work to do that you'd find better spent on creating a fun campaign.

[JoshuaZ]

No, they won't. The deities are controlled by the DM, who won't want the cleric to overpower all challenges. What'll end up happening is that the Cleric will wake up, having been granted by "the gods" 20 copies of Curse Water for no reason.

I'm sorry if it was not clear from my remark. Preface my remark with "if the deities are not played in a ridiculously metagamy fashion".

[herrhauptmann]

House Rules:

Arcane Casters: Channeling arcane energy is tiring.
when casting a spell using their highest level slots (3rd level spell for a 5th level wizard for example) the caster must make a DC 5 + spell level fortitude save or become fatigued (if already fatigued, then exhausted).

Perhaps if the arcane one is for the top third spell levels, round up on fractions (Zero level spells don't count). If you can do 6th level spells, then your 5th and 6th level spells will have the tiring effect. Once you gain 7th level spells, now your 5th,6th, and 7th level spelsl are tiring. One you get 9th level spells, your 7-9th level spells are tiring.

Aside from being really harsh, your divine one pretty much requires the DM to roll % for each spell slot the cleric/druid/paladin/PrC can cast from. Otherwise the player will be prettywell screwed depending on how lenient the DM is feeling.

Depending on optimization, you could literally spend half an hour preparing the cleric spells. And what if he's got a metamagic spell like extend spell? Now his 5th level slots will include all 5th level spells, AND 4th level spells that have been extended. With additional rolling required when an impossible feat/spell combination comes up. ex: Persisted cure light wounds, extended harm.

If you really want to nerf casters, perhaps just talking with the players would be a better idea. Have them tone down the optimization so that they're on equal levels with the noncasters. (This is actually a really good idea for any game)

[Pechvarry]

if you want the fatigue mechanic, I might consider changing up the DC like so:

Fort save DC = caster level + spell level (or maybe just caster level). Want a lower DC? Willingly lower your caster level (which may affect what level spell you can cast) for the spell in question.

You may also consider making it a Will save. Fort encourages higher CON, which is already one of the TWO stats wizards/sorcerers care about.

[SSGoW]

One way of getting the gap closed is to do a little merging of classes...

Take the Spell Thief and give all their special class abilities to say a barbarian, fighter, monk, rogue. Take away the spell progression and get rid of the sneak attack clause and just make it need combat advantage to steal a spell (or ability/effect/etc).

Oh and make the mod that the class uses when they cast a spell (steal then release) Consitution since its one each of the classes should have a decent score in :P

This would make melee classes very very deadly against mages and things with spell like effects XD