Yeah the problem with casters in 5e is their dominance of the game outside of combat, but in combat a buffed martial is infinitely more efficient than just about anyone else.
I get into balance discussions all the time and it feels like I'm playing a different game (well at this point I kind of am, but a5e martials do not do more damage, they've just got more options) because playing a level 17 game rn the boss fight is always "can the casters get the fighter to within 5 feet of the boss? if the casters get the fighter within 5 feet of the boss the fighter does some anime limit break bullshit and turns the boss to cat food" but everyone insists martials suck in every way
I think it's because people think its intuitively obvious that casters should be better at high levels, without considering the multitude of things that wizards have done more or less to spite casters. When you have a limited number of level 7-9 slots and you've used some of them getting through the dungeon to the final boss, that enemy being utterly immune to everything under 6th level and then being able to autosave whatever it wants (if it doesn't just save them to begin with) means that you're going to suck very badly very quickly.
While nothing in 5E stops BRRRR I GO AXE NOW. So you eventually learn to just throw every buff and enchantment on the martial and let them have at it.
I don't think it was a good or coherent solution, but it does work.
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I think it's because people think its intuitively obvious that casters should be better at high levels, without considering the multitude of things that wizards have done more or less to spite casters. When you have a limited number of level 7-9 slots and you've used some of them getting through the dungeon to the final boss, that enemy being utterly immune to everything under 6th level and then being able to autosave whatever it wants (if it doesn't just save them to begin with) means that you're going to suck very badly very quickly.
While nothing in 5E stops BRRRR I GO AXE NOW. So you eventually learn to just throw every buff and enchantment on the martial and let them have at it.
I don't think it was a good or coherent solution, but it does work.