RiddickDale said:
A scholar with a +3 DA and +15 armor from high magic is basically a level 5-6 fighter. ...
Fighters and Rogues bring plenty to the table that is inaccessible to other classes. High level scholars may be able to replicate low level fighters. But, I could replicate a low level scholar with a stack of cure lights and 20-30 disarm scrolls.
This doesn't quite track. A Scholar needs to invest 10-Build (1-H Edged) to benefit from those 52-Build worth of Fighter skills - a Fighter would need to invest 51-Build (12 for RW/RM + 4,3,2,1 pyramid) for the opportunity to purchase scrolls to use the Eigth tier spells available to a sixth Level Scholar. ¿How is that equitable? And this is putting aside Race and Monster reavers which emulate even greater amounts of Fighter Build for a scant investment on the Scholar's part.
Add in the fact the Master Constructs have built in effects unavailable to any other class (Rip from, Healed by, Immunities, etc) and can gain +8 strength (120 Fighter-Build) and there's no way that the classes are balanced.
The recent additions have made all but the most powerful Fighters secondary to even remedial Formal Scholars; further emphasizing the Fighter's need for team-work while decoupling the Scholar from that need. Basically, any team of Scholars can replace Fighter Skills with Formal Magic; any team of Fighter can do bupkiss.
The only way for Classes to be completely unique is to have abilities solely available to those classes and no other, as is: nearly every ability can either be emulated, improved, or copied by Formal Magic, the sole province of Scholars; every other class cannot approach that utility.