Just going to go through some wordy context, I'll put an asterisk (*) if you want to skip the meat and potatoes of my concern and get to broad strokes.
So I'm currently GMing through Extinction Curse (don't worry, no spoilers) and I have a party which includes a Fighter, Champion (Redeemer), Bard (multiclass into Redeemer) and a Cleric (Cloisted). All level 9. We've hit Book 3 and, well, my party is a mix bag of moods. On the upshot, the Fighter is goading me to bring it on as though he's unstoppable and the Champion is having an okay time. The Bard and Cleric though, well, their moods are souring hard and fast.
It's a balance issue.
The fighter has this build where he uses trip A LOT and then attack-of-opportunity on the way up. It actually happens to an incredible frequency, and really made me aware no stat block features an immunity to such a thing (even beings without an anatomy to trip, like a Gelatinous Cube) nor a way to get up without provoking. It has led to this monstrous powerhouse of DPS as he'll just use Knockdown, Advantageous Assault then Attack of Opportunity on the way up, presenting two attacks a turn without MAP, getting rid of an action by the enemy and an extra attack for good-luck. This gets just immensely worse if he's managed to Tumble his way past the frontline and get to the spellcasters where he'll AOO any spellcasting and keep tripping, keeping the action economy to such a point where they can't really cast spells and move away, nor can they cast spells and keep concentrate spells rolling. That's even ignoring how critically hitting them will disrupt the spell, which their AC versus his attack chance makes it very likely. Improved Knockdown at next level will lower this Knockdown to a single action, so more straight attacks and I'm sure there'll be more ways to increase the power of this tactic.
The inverse is the Bard and Cleric, which putting aside limited spells per day does lead me to a conversation about attack rolls. Fighters are able to enchant their weapons to hit more often, to my knowledge spell casters lack the capacity to increase their attack roll. So this leads to a Fighter with a +20 to hit able to swing all day, versus two spellcasters with a +17 to hit (and DC27). Again, could roll off my back, but with a creature they just fought having an AC30 and saving throws of +17 Fort, +23 Reflex & +20 Will, the chances are just against the casters. The creature makes the save at least 50% of the time, dodges spell attack rolls on a 13 or above and dodges physical attacks on a 16 or above. That's after levelling, which happened after fighting this thing.
The only thing I've managed to work out so far is home-ruling some trip immunities for creatures lacking the antatomy to be tripped, which is about 3 or 4 fights in the last five months. Beyond that, I have a fighter who is definitely chuffed, a redeemer who is enjoying things fine as long as he remembers to Glimpse of Redemption and attack of opportunity people, two spellcasters who are vaguely annoyed at their inability to do much (ignoring the times the campaign offered ways to Feeblemind their already pathetic spellcasting into oblivion) and me who is just frustrated at seeing fights play out the same way over and over.
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So, after all that, I'm kind of left wondering if Fighters might have accidentally displaced spellcasters. If clerics are no longer the dominant powerhouses they were, and now are actually behind the curve. While Fighters can get to just an insane degree that I'm left actually triple checking to see if there is a way to increase their amounts of AOO outside of the level 20 feat because they less control the battlefield but rather dominate it with big flashy DPS.
I adore the Success effects, as it generates significantly less all-or nothing and offers an olive branch for spellcasters who do miss. I also like that spellcasters aren't just trashing everything on-sight like they could in 1st. In addition is how I've found melee-classes like Monks and Fighters are in just a great state now and are no longer cap-out or just underwhelm. However, I've just hit this point where I have beleaguered and upset spellcaster players who feel unable to do much while the fighter of the group steamrolls everything, and I don't know what to do or say besides "well, reroll?".
I genuinely open this discussion (which I'm sure has been done before but I couldn't find it at a glance, I'm really sorry!) less out of player frustration their favourite class isn't the best in the world any more, and more because I'm just growing increasingly distressed by having players feel just totally powerless and annoyed their build doesn't work for reasons beyond anyone. That they keep missing with a limited pool of spells. I'm just really not sure what to do any more. I'm really open to advice, with the caveat that I'm running through Extinction Curse so it is pre-gen material.
