@Sanctuary - broadly agree with you on most points and appreciate the comments. However, I know that I can invest points in other schools for more mobility. The point that I am making is that the physical classes do not need to do dilute their builds for these tools. All physical classes use Warfare, which provides flat out the most outrageous amount of mobility in the game. Combine this with Scoundrel or Huntsman and you really are spoilt for choice.
The single largest problem with elemental damage is that it doesn't scale with your weapon. That is the biggest benefit physical classes have,
not any school division. Resists are stupid and a secondary problem, but not the biggest. Usually.
All physical classes want to invest 10 into Warfare.
An elemental caster can do
similar by dumping 10 into their school of choice. I'm not clear on whether or not elemental schools are additive or multiplicative though (not like it really matters in the end). Problem is when you come up against those 50% - 100% resistances that you know full well about. Physical has nothing comparable to deal with.
Physical classes DO need to invest in other schools too for better mobility options,
especially Warriors. Scoundrel builds do by default simply because they are going to need at least two into Scoundrel for a while for skills anyway, but their primary way to raise damage is through Warfare (plus they have the advantage with not only Backlash, but their AP to damage conversion in general seems way more efficient throughout most of the game). Same thing with Rangers and Huntsman.
After maxing 10 in Warfare, with 2-3 (depending on the build) in another school for skills, the physical builds can focus capping either Scoundrel, Huntsman and Two-Handed; or in the case of the Ranger, a mix of Huntsman and Ranged due to all of the flat footed encounters.
After maxing any random element, a caster can max out Huntsman or go for a mix of Huntsman and Scoundrel (once you hit around 50% critical chance) for either the elevation bonus (which becomes useless for many fights) or critical damage bonus with some extra movement.
Again though, physical classes have the clear advantage because of how their weapons affect
all of the damage they do. For whatever inexplicable reason, aside from a few stat bonuses, casters don't get the same benefit, and there's no logical reason why.
Here's a comparison of end game damage. Simply looking at this makes it seem like casters are actually in a good spot. What it doesn't factor is resists, which may as well slash all of those figures in half. On average, and sometimes damage is nullified entirely.
http://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Divinity-Original-Sin-2/fO6mOM3.jpg Also, I am not suggesting that physical should be nerfed to make magical more viable. Rather, independently, physical is simply too powerful and trivialises any challenge. You should not have to artificially increase the difficulty by playing a sub-optimal build.
This wouldn't work on Tactician at all. Instead of simply making physical damage "worse" in general, it would greatly favor Rangers even more than they already are.
Inflation is a problem, but it doesn't actually feel bad until Act 3 and beyond.
Edit:
However, if you really want to "be all that you can be" with a caster, you can now take advantage of the properly scaling scrolls. This ends up requiring a lot more busywork in regards to crafting (more expensive as well as simply finding or buying the necessary materials), similar to grenade use. With the proper scrolls, since they are actually cheaper to cast than the spells are normally, you can wipe out quite a few fights easier that way than you can with an all physical group.
Of course this also requires the perfect scenario where there are no immunities or even high resists against the scroll element you want to use in the first place. Does that make them balanced? I'd say no, but you do now have the option to make them somewhat closer sometimes. It's just a matter of how much extra effort you really want to put forth to make it happen.
