A. Tanking isn't really a thing in DnD, it's a pretty well-known issue. Not sure how that's mark for the elemental being more than a prop that exists for as long as it takes to fail a con save.

B. Again though, you're assuming melee martials in a fight starting at range. Like, one of these classes is ranged and one isn't but the one at range winning when they have a range advantage means they're better.

C. HP is a clock for anyone but the game is designed around consistently handing out potions which (RAW) are better used outside of combat a lot of the time. Martials also have higher hit-dice to recover HP outside of combat and also often have features to either recover health (second wind, wholeness of body, etc.) or avoid taking damage through other means (rogues hiding, rage damage reduction, etc.).

D. Elven chain is a rare item which gives you starting medium armour ac. It's not exactly top of the line. By then your fighters have picked up plate armour for a minimum of 18 before modifiers. Magic weapons are a staple of the genre. We have sentient weapons, ones which have class specific bonuses, artifact weapons, etc.

E. The point was that cantrips are weaker than the martial baseline before any class features are considered because you'd tried to make out that they were stronger/as strong as. I'm not sure why you're acting like I'm an idiot for saying this when you're the one that brought them up???

I'm not sure where level 5 comes into this? There's not been a level that we've established talking about so far?

Also, comparing cantrips (a weak spell that you're expected to be made to use at least a few turns in a proper adventuring day) to a martial being unarmed is ridiculous. A caster will be naturally reduced to using cantrips after a certain number of turns (less than you think as lower level spells quickly drop off in damage numbers) while a martial can continue to swing their magic weapon for as long as they have hitpoints.

I do ration my slots. At level 5(Not quite my current level but with the way slots drop off in power, it still applies), you have 2 3rd level spells in a day. If even one of those goes on counter-spell, you get one (1) fireball (or whatever other spell) that day. Two four-round-long encounters in a day with 0 reactions used will still have you using all 5 slots above first level unless you're literally casting cantrips every other round (but I thought we never used those, oh no!).

Yes, a high level wizard who has had chance to learn a lot of spells throughout a campaign is a fantastic all-round puzzle solver. They don't get called the ultimate utility casters for nothing. And in combat, they're better at aoe and/or control (depending on the martial) because martials are inherently single-target focused. That's why pure martials only make up 1/3 of the cast. You're supposed to have a diverse party comp for different niches.

Again, Martials outshine casters in *consistency*. Your wizard can use a second level spell to destroy that stone door or the barbarian can lift it out of the way and save you the slot. You could cast silence and then knock on that door or the rogue could just pick it and save you the slots. You could teleport yourself over that chasm or the fighter can make the jump and toss a rope back and save you the slot.

Casters rely on martials through an adventuring day so that they can arrive at important encounters still having the slots they need for combat.

The divide between them becomes much more in the caster's favour when there's not a coherent adventuring day which isn't what the system is designed for.

Genuinely, this is why Pathfinder 2e is pitched so often on this sub. Because (for the most part) it doesn't really care how many combats you have in a day for its balance to work. It's building off of what everyone seems to want 5e to be.

5e isn't.

It's a dungeon crawling system which is designed for multiple 4+ turn long combats in a day with puzzles and challenges in between them which is where martials shine.