Ungimping Arcane Battle Casters?

[JeffreyGator]

So it is certainly possible to make battle casters but it is definitely more challenging.

I was thinking about what might be added to the game to make this easier.

Easy things would be a couple of feats:
Practiced Spellcaster (up to 3 levels outside your class get added to caster level)

Feat to allow light armor wearing without ASF (bard feature) (or grant -10% ASF)

Still Spell Feat to cast without ASF for 5-10 more spell points.

Prestige classes such as:
Eldritch Knight.

Other thoughts?

[Talon_Moonshadow]

They should give us real prestige classes IMO.

Which would help multi-classed casters.

It's part of 3.5 and a core part too.

Should be in game.

But, many people find ways to make good battlecasters right now, just fine.

[Caervas]

I'd say that this is a very important matter to address; there are virtually no use trying to make a functional hybrid between arcane caster and warrior. The existing candidates easily fall behind pure role characters, often either being a warrior with some minor self-buffing capabilities, or pure casters being squishies on the front line.

Several improvements could be made to increase this game's build possibilities regarding gish builds.
Your suggestions are good. Several existing posts take up these in great detail filed under suggestions on this forum.
Feats like Arcane Strike (Complete Warrior 3.5) could also be added, and would add some much needed damage potential for fighter/mages, or they could include the Duskblade (PHB II 3.5) class for a specialised character fundament for such builds. Should even be easily programmable, using already existing mechanisms.

I don't know why, but it seems to me that many are unwilling to accept the need for change in this matter though, the stereotypes of class roles and party configuration seem to be set in stone. As such, you will face alot of sceptical views on the use of such builds in the game as it is now, -even if you can pull your own weight 'and then some'.

Good initiative!

[LAWPRE]

One of the big problems with D&D (PnP) is that 29th level is about as high as you can go - in any edition. As such, DDO only has about 9 more levels to play with. So, they must do something to keep people interested. Update 3 is a Monk pass and that class STILL does not have PrEs. Also, we do not have the shifter, gnome - as well as a host of other - races. There is no Druid, let alone any other classes in DDO.

So, I would suggest a little patience followed by some civil disobedience. If we write enough letters or have enough people downgrade to f2p, the devs MUST listen.

[thkaal]

One of the big problems with D&D (PnP) is that 29th level is about as high as you can go - in any edition. As such, DDO only has about 9 more levels to play with. So, they must do something to keep people interested. Update 3 is a Monk pass and that class STILL does not have PrEs. Also, we do not have the shifter, gnome - as well as a host of other - races. There is no Druid, let alone any other classes in DDO.

So, I would suggest a little patience followed by some civil disobedience. If we write enough letters or have enough people downgrade to f2p, the devs MUST listen.

Obviously someone who never played first edition. *Sigh* Those were the days. After 15 years of play, I finally retired a level 38 magic-user.

[noinfo]

Obviously someone who never played first edition. *Sigh* Those were the days. After 15 years of play, I finally retired a level 38 magic-user.

Yep and powers for them basically ended at 29th level for casters and substantially lower for others anyway. If I remember correctly a few more hp, no increase in what really was THAC0 no more spells in game. Most non human races were signifcantly lower because of level limits. Yep you could do 38d6 fireballs with a level 3 spell but still that was about the only difference between 29 adnd and 38 adnd.

[chaos2190]

Its called the epic handbook, officially a part of the core 3.5 rules due to it expanding on mechanics already presented in the DMG.
However turbine wont introduce epic levels (higher then true 20th level), nor will they introduce the druid, or the gnome (correct me on the last one if Im mistaken) or introduce gish classes, such as the beguiler, the duskblade, the warmage, ect because, as aforementioned, mmo party/class roles are so hardwired into the developers, and I would imagine a fair portion of the players, that they dont see a need to.
Besides, why 'fix' something thats not broken. They are making enough money of us just fine, and dont feel a need to introduce more races and classes, hence why all of their 'updates' and 'expansions' only add the odd enhancement, and items and quests - nothing really substantial.
Much like wow really...

However, Im sure there are alot of us that feel they would benefit from adding classes such as the duskblade, warmage, and even introducing true prestige classes. They already have multiclassing and class mechanics in place, there would be little difficulty in adding them... And if it wasnt immediately obvious, I am definantly PRO EPIC in DDO

[EyeHunter]

I second the duskblade as the easiest and most fun way to implement this. Practiced spellcaster is also good, for many builds (Wiz 18/rog 2, Clr 18/mnk 2, etc.)

In 3.5, past level 20, you can design your own spells. That was amazing, but not really relevant.

[EyeHunter]

Its called the epic handbook, officially a part of the core 3.5 rules due to it expanding on mechanics already presented in the DMG.

Note that since those rules were in the option part of the DMG, Eberron does not use them.

[Phidius]

While I appreciate the spirit that the OP was written in, I must confess to a bit of surprise... I didn't realize my casters were gimped in the first place... good to know

[LAWPRE]

I have played Chainmail and a host of other PnP games as well as all version of D&D. Also, I have played through most of the D&D comp games.

IF you wanted to be technical, you could get a lot higher than 38 in 1st ed.

HOWEVER, what you had to do was something like Ftr15/Monk15/Illusionist15/Mage15/Cleric15 in oder to get that high. Also, you could not use your previous class(es) until the current class was HIGHER than the previous class AND no matter what class, you could not go back to any previous class(es).