So what is the purpose of casters?

[NONAME]

I'm ~50 hours in and level 6 Sorcerer on Balanced difficulty.

Lae'zel hits for 15-20 damage with standard attacks, which she can do up to 4 per round + pommel. She seemingly dodges half of the attacks and has a truckload of health + high armor class for when she doesn't
She can destroy most strong enemies in 2 rounds by herself.

My character's strongest level 3 spell (Lighting Bolt) is 8-48 damage and consistently hits for also about 20-25 damage, can be used only 3 times per long rest and is very situational, because 9 times out of 10 it will hit one of my companions with its area of effect.

So aside from expanded dialog options due to high Charisma, what's the point of playing this gimp?

[Noctoculus]

Utility.

If you got the ice staff from the underdark you can pair it with a necklace that adds your spell modifier to cantrips and nuke enemies with ray of frost.

[General Vuxensaft]

Lae'zel can hit one target. You can hit many. Also, Lae'zel has 0 utility. You can featherfall/dimension door/knock/disguise/minor illusion/confused large groups of enemies/paralyze large groups of enemies. I could go on. You are never going to beat her on one target, she is never going to beat you on many. Its how the game works.

/thread

[Glyph]

Can your fighter cast hypnotic pattern and lock down an entire room? Thought not.

[Jack the Roamer]

I think there is also a ring that causes enemies hit with ice spell to form 5m ice underneath their feet. Ice mage amazing at CC, I pair it with Hadar for ultimate carnage. Even ranged/ casters can't touch you

[dulany67]

Wizards are about utility to me, but honestly I don't use them. I use SH as my caster.

[doublejesus]

Fk the utility you're just wrong disintegrate does 60-100 damage what are you talking about.

[Seagal]

You'll find that casters get better and better as the game goes on, and they get insanely powerful at that.

I'm sure you could probably beat the game running all martial classes, but you'll have a better time having a competent caster in your party. A lot of fights later in the game will be a nightmare without spells and AOE.

[Recjawjind]

Can your fighter obliterate an entire encounter in one chain lightning cast? Or disintegrate a boss with well, disintegrate or curriculum of strategy?
No?
Well, there you go.
Casters are still better than martials, outside of tavern brawler thrown weapon builds.

[Jack the Roamer]

Originally posted by dulany67:

Wizards are about utility to me, but honestly I don't use them. I use SH as my caster.

dash, click heels, guardians, next turn disengage,run a circuit of almost 60m and annihilate everyone

[ACS36]

Fireball. It's really that simple. You can do massive damage to many enemies at once.

[Poppy]

Fighters can't trivialize some of the hardest fights in the game, wizards can CC is very strong.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Grab two levels of warlock. Have sorcerer haste himself.

Congrats now you can fire off 3 eldritch blasts per turn dealing 6d10+45 force damage at a distance and also push people.

Lae'zel meanwhile can action surge once per short rest. Otherwise she has two attacks and the baby hilt bash and won't come anywhere near your damage without getting lucky with great weapon master.

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by NONAME:

because 9 times out of 10 it will hit one of my companions with its area of effect.

Thats just straight up a skill issue.

[TripSin]

Twinned haste into 3 fireballs (or other spell of your choosing) per turn.

Like has been mentioned, melee are generally limited to attacking 1 unit per turn. But one well-placed Cloud of Daggers or the like can do tons of damage in an encounter with many enemies.

Also, casters bring a lot of utility and support options.

Also, twinned chain lightning does DISGUSTING damage

[Abisha]

they there to look flashy, let the others deal damage
last few years mages get the bash in all games they the new underdog.
it's not just BG3 with mage's issues.

hand me a tissue will you