Originally Posted by Argyle
"and a rogue can heal more than the cleric"

The versions of D&D each contributed changes which have diluted the individuality of certain classes. By the time we reach 8E, there probably won't be any recognizable "cleric" class anymore. The class's original healing functions have already been overtaken by other game elements, to include the extreme limits of credulity in BG III where eating an onion extends one's life in combat. Even the most iconic divine spells are now available to bards & paladins. To make up for the loss of uniqueness, the cleric gets "domains" which contain ... mage spells. Bards, clerics, and warlocks now cover 100% of the mage portfolio in 5E, so that is another base class in peril. The original Illusionist class is long gone.

This situation results when the game designers are focused more on re-arranging the mechanics of things that were already contained in prior editions. An alternative approach would be a completely skill-based and classless system like Morrowind, but I don't think that appeals as much. Why? Because it's good to have limitations and flaws as well as special abilities, for as much as we complain about them, those aspects help the roleplay connect with our experiences in life and give each class a unique set of challenges to overcome. What can Larian do? Well, there is inspiration for unique content out there if you know where to look ... the FootPrints publication, the archives of Dragon Magazine, etc. I've always thought the Paramander class was a great idea, for example, with its list of unique spells.

I've been playing the Pathfinder cRPGs lately, and the amount of subclasses that exist in there is insane. The sheer amount of them is probably overkill, but I would pray to have something like the Magus Eldritch Archer archetype translated into 5E. I assume DnD 3.5E had something similar, as Pathfinder is basically a spinoff of DnD 3.5 from what I hear.

It's probably why I favor Solasta's homebrew Greenmage archetype for Wizards so much, the current 5E rules and official archetypes that I am aware of do not support viable spellcasting archers of any sort.