First up I have to say I am happy Paizo decided to apply the nerf bat, but I will say in the never ending CASTER vs MARTIAL debate, the martials came off relatively much worse than the casters which I did think was unbalanced. I do think in the errata it didnt go far enough as regards the casters.
BUT... I am not one for trying to create complete system balance as it was this IMO that was the undoing of 3.5 as it transitioned into 4e.... and nobody wants PF to go down the same path.
So, sensible suggestions on tweaks to any casters,(focussed more on the 9th's than the 6ths probably but all ideas welcome!)...
Its already been said before, but the way to nerf casters is to nerf specific spells. Find the spells you find objectionable, and remove them from the game or edit them in a way so that they are not as objectionable.
The spells that each group finds objectionable will be different, but there's probably some common overlap.
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Add the following ability to the Arcanist, Cleric, Druid, Oracle, Shaman, Sorcerer, Witch, and Wizard:
Balancing Patch (Ex): Upon reaching level 9 of this class, the PC must, upon entering every gaming session, donate at least $10 worth of food (converted to other currencies, as appropriate) to share with other players on the table. If the game occurs over the internet, phone, mail, or any other source where physically bringing food is not possible, the player of the character must send an appropriate amount of money worth of gifts to the GM using an online shopping/delivery service of his choice.
This ability overrides Rule 0.
More seriously, though, you have to take away the caster's versatility. This pretty much means that you have to use limited spontaneous casting for every caster class, or take away their wide range of options using some other method.
Sphere of Power is a very good example of this.
I've also thought that how a D6 or D8 class reacts to damage in comparison to a D10 or D12 should be reflected better somehow...
If I have 60hp total and get hit for 30hp, there should be more of an overall effect than if someone with 120hp got hit for 30hp...
Add the following ability to the Arcanist, Cleric, Druid, Oracle, Shaman, Sorcerer, Witch, and Wizard:
Balancing Patch (Ex): Upon reaching level 9 of this class, the PC must, upon entering every gaming session, donate at least $10 worth of food (converted to other currencies, as appropriate) to share with other players on the table. If the game occurs over the internet, phone, mail, or any other source where physically bringing food is not possible, the player of the character must send an appropriate amount of money worth of gifts to the GM using an online shopping/delivery service of his choice.
LOL... Epic idea!
Unchained has plenty of options for you. Stamina enhanced combat feats for Martials, various Limited magic options. Give that a look
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Aside from getting rid of a few problem spells which virtually everyone agrees on (simulactrum / time-stop etc) -
1. Change all spells' casting time to a full action. A few (teleport/plane shift etc) up to ritual spells which take minutes to cast. This would have the added benefit of making counter-spelling more viable, as with a spellcraft check you'd know what they were casting during your turn and know if you can counter it.
2. Get rid of summon monster spells, polymorph spells, and spells which only self-buff. They step on the toes of martials too hard.
3. Get rid of most divination spells. They break story-lines too easily. (I've done this in a whodunnit campaign before. No one minded.)
4. Not a direct caster thing - but make it easier for martials to interpose themselves in front of casters - taking hits for them. (forcing attacks against their AC/saves etc) This would help make a caster/martial more potent than either 2 casters or 2 martials, which is really the goal here. Also helps caster survivability after getting rid of self-buffs.
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Casters don't need to be brought down. Martials need to be raised up.
Giving martials access to Stamina & Combat Tricks while using Limited Spellcasting from Pathfinder Unchained does a lot to balance things out.
Spellcasters still have massive versatility, but when spells are tied more closely to Spell Level than Caster Level, it not only makes calculations easier, but it also brings down their overall power withot completely nerfing them - it also has the cute repercussion of making Heighten Spell EXTREMELY useful, rather than largely ineffective.
Some of the more-gnarly spells like Teleport, Raise Dead, etc., can be relegate to Ritual-Only, now that we have rules for Rituals care of Occult Adventures.
The casting times for those spells are upped to 10-minutes per spell level, or better yet for Raise Dead, Resurrection, etc., HOURS per spell level.
I do feel the Arcanist tweaks although warranted didnt go far enough.... pushing them more towards a proper INT / CHA caster seems appropriate... after all they are supposed to be hybrids!
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Casters don't need to be brought down. Martials need to be raised up.IMHO, without making the game a joke, there is no sensible way to raise martial to the point of creating demiplanes or having an army of undeads.
Reign in casters more absurd powers and restrict them to a smaller subset of magical effects and raise Martials up to proper high level abilities.
Casters don't need to be brought down. Martials need to be raised up.IMHO, without making the game a joke, there is no sensible way to raise martial to the point of creating demiplanes or having an army of undeads.
That's why 6th-level spellcasters are more numerous than 9th-level spellcasters: they're more in-line with martials, and vastly less-powerful.
Create Demiplane is an 8th-level spell; Summoner is the only 6th-level caster that learns that spell (and one of the reasons people call it a mistake).
9th-level spellcasters are the "problem", so simply disallowing full-casters is a quick & easy answer to balance.
Then again, very, very few players actually optimize characters, especially spellcasters, so while you CAN have a physical god by allowing 9th-level spellcasters, you'll normally find that most players put limiters on themselves by playing a theme, rather than optimizing.
9th-level spellcasters are the "problem", so simply disallowing full-casters is a quick & easy answer to balance.
I agree in that I think 6th lvl casters are on the whole well designed and balanced
I dont agree with disallowing 9th level ones
Casters don't need to be brought down. Martials need to be raised up.IMHO, without making the game a joke, there is no sensible way to raise martial to the point of creating demiplanes or having an army of undeads.
Agreed... tweaking casters is by far the more practical
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Keeping the 9th level casters, but removing the 7th-9th level spells is also an often talked about idea. The spell slots are still there, you just have to fill them with metamagic spells.
I do feel the Arcanist tweaks although warranted didnt go far enough.... pushing them more towards a proper INT / CHA caster seems appropriate... after all they are supposed to be hybrids!
The problem with making them more of an INT/CHA hybrid is that it makes them less attractive than Sorcerer or Wizard.
Actually, I forgot which system did it, but I really like the idea of putting Spells Known on INT, Spells Per Day on WIS, and "spell power" (DC's and such) on CHA.
Edit: There would have to be some mechanic by which prepared casters could have only so many different spells prepared, to keep them in line with spontaneous casters in this system. For example, a Cleric might have five spells of a certain level per day, but if he only had 14 INT, he would only be able to prepare two spells to fill those slots with.
Lol.
Did someone seriously mention removing the buff spells?
If anything that hurts martials too....
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9th-level spellcasters are the "problem", so simply disallowing full-casters is a quick & easy answer to balance.
I agree in that I think 6th lvl casters are on the whole well designed and balanced
I dont agree with disallowing 9th level ones
Trying to make 9th-level casters as balanced as 6th-level casters, though, is like trying to adjust the game of Baseball to allow for metal bats in Major League games - it just doesn't completely work.
I've always allowed 9th-level casters in my games, and never really had a problem with power, honestly. And my players have DIRECTLY caused errata in other games like Spycraft (so I'm dealing with severe powergamers here).
As I said, players will tend to naturally limit themselves by building to a theme, rather than building to win.
If you have a problem with certain spells, either don't allow them, only allow them on special magic items, or make them Rituals.
Disallowing 9th-level casters is the Quick & Dirty method of balancing; if you still want to allow 9th-level casters, then you're going to have to do a lot of cherry-picking in addition to general changes.
Actually, I forgot which system did it, but I really like the idea of putting Spells Known on INT, Spells Per Day on WIS, and "spell power" (DC's and such) on CHA.
I felt something like that for the Shaman would have been appopriate
WIS - Spells per day
CHA - Bonus spells
INT - DC's
If you want to rob spell lists theres the price!
Remove the automatic power increase of spells that comes from leveling. If you want a spell to have increased range, duration, damage, etc, then put it in a higher level spell slot.
This is similar to how DSP Psionics works - you have to spend more points to power up a spell; there is not automatic increase.
This will remove much of the quadratic power of spells without removing the versatility of casters.
Conversely, add in an automatic power increase to all combat feats to make martial classes more quadratic.
Conversely, add in an automatic power increase to all combat feats to make martial classes more quadratic.
I really do wonder why this wasn't a thing. They clearly had this idea with power attack, but just stopped there.
I'd fix Wizards and Arcanists at least by removing the ability to learn from Scrolls and other spellbooks or at least limiting it. They learn from leveling, alternate favored class bonuses, and feats primarily. They still end up knowing more spells than the spontaneous casters but don't have a contingency for *everything.*
Unchained has plenty of options for you. Stamina enhanced combat feats for Martials, various Limited magic options. Give that a look
Giving martials access to Stamina & Combat Tricks while using Limited Spellcasting from Pathfinder Unchained does a lot to balance things out.
Even without applying the limited casting systems - I would second these. Stamina helps a lot. Particularly in a metric of fun. Even though Stamina doesn't make martials meet casters for power, the use of a resource and choices makes them feel more dynamic. At least, more dynamic than "I hit it."
Aside from getting rid of a few problem spells which virtually everyone agrees on (simulactrum / time-stop etc) -
1. Change all spells' casting time to a full action. A few (teleport/plane shift etc) up to ritual spells which take minutes to cast. This would have the added benefit of making counter-spelling more viable, as with a spellcraft check you'd know what they were casting during your turn and know if you can counter it.
While this is very viable for a number of spells (if going into looknig at them and auditing), this is another place I'd cite Unchained as having something wonderful in its Action Economy. Switching Standard-Move-Swift-Free to 3 "Acts" a round, with attacks subsequently costing half the action economy of casting a spell, is significantly useful. Particularly when the later level enjoyment of Quickened Spells comes in - in that an inherent trade off is taken when your swift action spell costs your ability to move. In a game where physical enemies are now more mobile.
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Conversely, add in an automatic power increase to all combat feats to make martial classes more quadratic.I really do wonder why this wasn't a thing. They clearly had this idea with power attack, but just stopped there.
Power Attack gets bigger - but it doesn't really get better. It hits the sweet-spot at levels 4-10. At very high levels it sucks. Even with THF - at 16, a -5 to hit is too high of a price to pay for +15 damage when you're making a full attack. It'll likely make at least one iterative miss any target with decent AC.
Even if it only makes 1 iterative miss (I'd guess a bit more) - the extra damage is likely less than a single extra hit without PA.
Though it's usually useful when you don't get a full attack, against very low AC targets, and sometimes against high DR.
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While this is very viable for a number of spells (if going into looknig at them and auditing), this is another place I'd cite Unchained as having something wonderful in its Action Economy. Switching Standard-Move-Swift-Free to 3 "Acts" a round, with attacks subsequently costing half the action economy of casting a spell, is significantly useful. Particularly when the later level enjoyment of Quickened Spells comes in - in that an inherent trade off is taken when your swift action spell costs your ability to move. In a game where physical enemies are now more mobile.Aside from getting rid of a few problem spells which virtually everyone agrees on (simulactrum / time-stop etc) -
1. Change all spells' casting time to a full action. A few (teleport/plane shift etc) up to ritual spells which take minutes to cast. This would have the added benefit of making counter-spelling more viable, as with a spellcraft check you'd know what they were casting during your turn and know if you can counter it.
Except my main motivation wasn't to make casters less mobile - that was a secondary consideration.
The main reason was to make it so that a caster has a full round to be hit and forced to make concentration checks in order to be able to cast at all.
Remove the automatic power increase of spells that comes from leveling. If you want a spell to have increased range, duration, damage, etc, then put it in a higher level spell slot.
This is similar to how DSP Psionics works - you have to spend more points to power up a spell; there is not automatic increase.This will remove much of the quadratic power of spells without removing the versatility of casters.
Conversely, add in an automatic power increase to all combat feats to make martial classes more quadratic.
That's basically what Limited Spellcasting does.
It's also what FantasyCraft and 5th Edition have done, and it's worked out pretty darn well on the whole.
Except my main motivation wasn't to make casters less mobile - that was a secondary consideration.
The main reason was to make it so that a caster has a full round to be hit and forced to make concentration checks in order to be able to cast at all.
A reading slip on my part lead to the first section of that post being off.
Anyway: I understand the rationale, and probably should have made that comparison explicit. I simply find Unchained's system a slightly less harsh* alternative.
*By no means a criticism - it's a valid move to manage casters.
Remove the automatic power increase of spells that comes from leveling. If you want a spell to have increased range, duration, damage, etc, then put it in a higher level spell slot.
This is similar to how DSP Psionics works - you have to spend more points to power up a spell; there is not automatic increase.This will remove much of the quadratic power of spells without removing the versatility of casters.
Conversely, add in an automatic power increase to all combat feats to make martial classes more quadratic.
That's basically what Limited Spellcasting does.
It's also what FantasyCraft and 5th Edition have done, and it's worked out pretty darn well on the whole.
That's not a bad idea. Limited Spellcasting from Unchained does a lot to remove the quadratic power increase inherent in spells.
I was taking this over with a friend, and he believes that limited Spellcasting doesn't address the power issue, because the true issue lies in the utility of spells. I'm not sure I agree with this, by using the Words of Power system from Ultimate Magic does limit the utility by quite a bit.
I definitely wouldn't want to combine them, but I would like to know your (and others) opinions on this.
I suspect that between these two systems, you have enough in the published rules to limit the power of casters to be more in line with martials without having to add extra house rules.
Keeping the 9th level casters, but removing the 7th-9th level spells is also an often talked about idea. The spell slots are still there, you just have to fill them with metamagic spells.
That's an interesting idea, and one that I hadn't considered before.
Here are my ideas for smoothing out the classes...
- 1) When making characters, no starting ability scores above 16, or below 10 after racial adjustment.
That fixes half the problems of class power imbalance.
- 2) Remove hold person and dominate person from the game.
- 3) 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells take at least a full round action to cast.
- 4) Spells with a duration of days/level get changed to hours/level. Some permanent spells might have their duration reduced.
- 5) Remove quicken spell from the game, or make it apply only to spells with a range of personal.
- 6) Remove or rewrite stupid s&+@ like dazing spell meta-magic, witches slumber hex, and other obviously broken stuff.
- 7) I would sit down with the players and explain that I don't like to play with a lot of action denial techniques. RPG-Tag is not a fun way to play. This applies on both sides of the screen. I don't want to consistently take a player out of action with save-or-suck and for similar reasons, I don't want players using those tactics on my named NPC/monsters.
- 8)Consider crafted items the same as purchased when determining Wealth By Level. I would also make master craftsman into a more useful feat.
I strongly disagree with the idea of bringing martials up to the level of casters. High level casters break the CR system. Align the classes with the CR system, not god wizards*.
* I'm not opposed to martial characters doing cool stuff, I just think it should be balanced with the game rules, not the Wish spell.
EDIT: Should I go poke Kobold Cleaver with a stick?
Replace Paizo T1/2 classes with DSP Psionics and/or Spheres of Power. Allow Path of War. Suddenly everyone is much closer to T3.
Yeah, I'm seriously tempted to make the next game I GM a "DSP classes only" game.
Remove the automatic power increase of spells that comes from leveling. If you want a spell to have increased range, duration, damage, etc, then put it in a higher level spell slot.
This is similar to how DSP Psionics works - you have to spend more points to power up a spell; there is not automatic increase.This will remove much of the quadratic power of spells without removing the versatility of casters.
Conversely, add in an automatic power increase to all combat feats to make martial classes more quadratic.
That's basically what Limited Spellcasting does.
It's also what FantasyCraft and 5th Edition have done, and it's worked out pretty darn well on the whole.
That's not a bad idea. Limited Spellcasting from Unchained does a lot to remove the quadratic power increase inherent in spells.
I was taking this over with a friend, and he believes that limited Spellcasting doesn't address the power issue, because the true issue lies in the utility of spells. I'm not sure I agree with this, by using the Words of Power system from Ultimate Magic does limit the utility by quite a bit.
I definitely wouldn't want to combine them, but I would like to know your (and others) opinions on this.
I suspect that between these two systems, you have enough in the published rules to limit the power of casters to be more in line with martials without having to add extra house rules.
People generally regard Words of Power with "nice idea, but very little ways to make it actually work."
It's a fine subsystem for spontaneous casters, especially Bards and Skalds who thematically would do something like this anyway, but ultimately it seems to be way, waaaaaay too wonky to put into practice.
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Limited Spellcasting is a simple-yet-elegant solution to the Quadratic problem - it focuses spells less on the level of the caster and more on the spell level itself.
So a Fireball is always going to do 5d6(W/C)/6d6(S)/7d6(M)/10d6(B) damage, regardless of the spellcaster's level.
It also makes Heighten Spell a much-more-worthwhile Feat, because casting a 2nd-level spell as a 3rd level spell now actually ups the amount of damage, duration, area, etc., because the minimum-caster-level is higher as a result (so a normal wizard's Fireball is 5d6, while a Heightened Fireball from the same wizard is 7d6, since it's cast as a 4th-level spell).
There are still a few kinks to work out in that certain spells are just absurdly overpowered even at high levels (like Teleport, Create Demiplane, and Planeshift, which rightly should be Epic spells) and have been since 1st Edition. Again, making these inaccessible to players except through Magic Items, if at all, is probably the best solution.
Most of these problem-causing spells were created way back when the game was much younger, and it seemed fine - Magic-Users would level up glacially slowly compared to other classes like Fighters and Thieves, so in theory someone could be a lv11 Paladin, lv11 Ranger when a Magic-User was still lv15; regaining expended spells also took HOURS to accomplish (re-memorizing Plane Shift, for instance, took 105 minutes of nonstop study, on top of the 60 minutes of basic meditation a Magic-User needed at the beginning of each day).
However, even these stopgaps proved to be pretty ineffective. Wizards gained lots of XP anyway by having a high Int stat, since they really didn't need anything else (while Fighters needed high Str, Dex, AND Con to survive, and Paladins required even more just to be a Paladin), so they leveled just about as quickly as everyone else, and most DMs disregarded the "15 minutes per spell per level to remember" rule because parties would rest for upwards of several days just waiting for the Wizard to regain all their spells.
So, yeah - these spells that were supposedly balanced because of built-in buffers were pretty much utterly broken even back in the day, and WOTC, not wanting to severely piss off players, left the spells pretty much at the levels they had been in 1st and 2nd Ed.
So the result back then is as it is now: houserule 'em out of existence or make them unavailable to players naturally, with certain magic items giving you options to planeshift, resurrect, etc.
Reign in casters more absurd powers and restrict them to a smaller subset of magical effects and raise Martials up to proper high level abilities.Casters don't need to be brought down. Martials need to be raised up.IMHO, without making the game a joke, there is no sensible way to raise martial to the point of creating demiplanes or having an army of undeads.
They're martials. Let them do things a little differently. Have them create castles and kingdoms instead of demiplanes, armies of loyal followers rather than mindless undead.
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EDIT: Should I go poke Kobold Cleaver with a stick?
Don't tell him! I want to see how long it takes!
Trawling through the list because I am thoroughly enjoying this thread's ideas/points.
Here are my ideas for smoothing out the classes...
- 1) When making characters, no starting ability scores above 16, or below 10 after racial adjustment.
On an opposite end of responses: Use higher point-buy/roll systems. Sure, casters will still sit on maybe a 20 post racials for their casting stat but the martial character now actually has every ability score they wanted to a decent amount.
- 2) Remove hold person and dominate person from the game.
Hold person actually isn't nearly as bad as many spells. What with a will save every round. Dominate is tactically strong, but not massively egregious. I'd personally flirt with hours duration, longer casting, and a level higher spell slot. The former two are definite. The latter, not sure.
- 3) 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells take at least a full round action to cast.
A cool idea. Especially interesting if put in conjunction with up-thread metamagic only to these slots.
- 4) Spells with a duration of days/level get changed to hours/level. Some permanent spells might have their duration reduced.
Agreeable. Nothing to add.
- 5) Remove quicken spell from the game, or make it apply only to spells with a range of personal.
On this - remove swift action spells (some exist). There are also some immediate action ones but they are actually fine, in my opinion.
- 6) Remove or rewrite stupid shit like dazing spell meta-magic, witches slumber hex, and other obviously broken stuff.
Same as 4). Personally not too upset about these. But that may be just me.
- 7) I would sit down with the players and explain that I don't like to play with a lot of action denial techniques. RPG-Tag is not a fun way to play. This applies on both sides of the screen. I don't want to consistently take a player out of action with save-or-suck and for similar reasons, I don't want players using those tactics on my named NPC/monsters.
It depends really. A boss enemy should probably receive some arbitrary buffs to make sure they won't suffer it, and have minions. Indeed, the best way to just stop the silliness of these things is don't make encounters 1 or 2 enemies.
Which lends to a round-about claim of a solution: Don't use exp; but story-based levelling. Your best means to make shut-down builds be either about actual management rather than shutting down fights completely is to simply make sure the field has more than a few challenging opponents. Partly to overcome action economy. However, this does create some swift levelling if players survive (they hopefully will!). Which is the downside; Ignoring exp does remedy any issues from this in that the exp value of an encounter is now a completely ignore-able factor for encounter/campaign planning. Now throw whatever you like at your players! :D
- 8)Consider crafted items the same as purchased when determining Wealth By Level. I would also make master craftsman into a more useful feat.
Alternatively: Stop having crafting (excluding temporary items) altogether. Again, Unchained helps is offering the Automatic Bonus Progression system. So you aren't fretting over the right number of +1s and +3s on your players but instead throw out loot based on "this is cool and helps them do X thing".
The problem is that there isn't anything to stop the wizard from raising a regular army either.
Gaining a castle and acquiring an army were Class Features for martial* classes back before 3e.
WOTC just removed those options from the martial classes and kept all the options for the caster classes.
*With appropriate class adjustments; animals for rangers, armies for fighters, a thieves' den for the rogue, and a possible religious stronghold for the cleric (but not the Druid or other Specialized Priests). Nothing for the wizard.
I've been watching this thread. I'm just lazy.
It's added now. Congratulations, over 10 posts, blah blah blah.
I've been watching this thread. I'm just lazy.
It's added now. Congratulations, over 10 posts, blah blah blah.
Noooooo....! I got so hopeful it might make it further. :P
On topic: The problem is taking is as valid that a wizard is necessarily going to casually raise an army of undead with no one ever taking issue with it. Or that the costs of raising these minions should be factored into the treatment of the character. A wizard might not need much magic gear but when there is a concrete consequence for losing their minions, they become that much more a precious quantity, demanding investment.
Alt. proposal: Nico's post highlight a particularly important example of spells that are problematic. Raising an army of undead can be a huge cause for party imbalance. Don't let beating the action economy come on a platter. Ban, or restrict the spells.
While this does not consider power imbalance within a PC party (if that's a concern- for me it's never a real issue between the players), the way I deal with it as a DM, is in my campaign world, casters are rare.
Sorcerers are a phenomenon that does not manifest often.
Wizardry is knowledge that isn't shared freely. Many who do find access, are often frustrated because it's hard to wrap to wrap their heads around it, and their study amounts to nothing. Intelligence is not the only thing that matters- it requires a knack for translating arcane knowledge into something they can interface with.
The gods do not share their power easily. Only the 'favored' of the gods are blessed with magic.
The secrets of the Druids have mostly been forgotten.
And so on...
6th level casters are slightly more common, but still, most people never lay eyes on them.
I plan on making the occult classes just that, classes that deal with very hidden knowledge and power.
I don't restrict what classes a player can take- after all PCs are supposed to be extraordinary.
As I said, this does nothing to address martial players feeling outpaced by the casters in the group, but it does make for far fewer casters the party encounters (and less death by magic)- and when they do, it's a big deal.
I also tend to give caster NPCs close to their minimum HP for their class.
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Trawling through the list because I am thoroughly enjoying this thread's ideas/points.
On an opposite end of responses: Use higher point-buy/roll systems. Sure, casters will still sit on maybe a 20 post racials for their casting stat but the martial character now actually has every ability score they wanted to a decent amount.
There are a few problems with this, mainly that it still allows a caster to start with a 20 casting stat, and that is hugely detrimental to game balance. It also allows casters to have great dex, con, etc. which only makes them more powerful.
Giving martials high point buys makes them very powerful at the lower levels, but doesn't affect them that much later in the game. And if the players are going to dump Int and Cha, and be useless out of a fight, nothing prevents that.
I'm strongly in favor of cutting down on the save-or-suck/die stuff, and have found that hold person-coup de grace is ridiculously easy to pull off, and works on a surprising number of opponents, especially now that giants are humanoids. I'm against slumber hex for the same reasons. If you changed it to a stun effect, that would help balance the power level as well. Hold Monster could remain in the game, as could dominate monster, but they belong as higher level spells, not something every 3rd level cleric can cast.
Dominate is a ridiculously powerful spell, with an even more ridiculous duration. If used by an intelligent enemy (abeloth, vampire), it could easily remove a PC from the game completely. If you want a powerful pet, you should have to give up a level or two of spell casting or something important, not have cast one spell last week. I have similar feelings about planar binding, ally, gate, etc. Anything that basically adds a party member is a BIG deal!
Someone mentioned making save-or-suck magic take a full round or 1 round action to cast, and I think that is a good idea.
Guys. Guys. I've got this. If we're not talking PFS, I know the perfect way to fix things....
Just make Wizard, Arcanist, and Cleric NPC classes.
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Why not taking the Mage (from White Wolf) approach?
Let's give casters something like "caster fatigue", or an equivalent of paradox ("so you just casted your 4th lvl 9 spell in a row? Good for you... unfortunately I rolled for your chanc eof paradox and it seems you weren't that lucky... now, please give me 4 DC36 fortitude checks or start bleeding con..."). Divine casters could incur in something like "wrath of the gods" (they took too much power, didn't respect the proper rituals of the faith etc).
Could do wonders to make casters a bit more wary when using spells.
The idea is that being a spellcaster gives you power but it's also a risky endeavor.