How powerful SHOULD a melee class be?

[Venardhi]

I am currently in the midst of homebrewing a class which is sort of an odd mix of a Ranger, Druid and Psionic Warrior. Part of the class features special abilities much like Psionic Feats. These generally increase damage, give bonuses for future attacks, increase allies damage, etc. In comparison to a standard fighter, anyone playing this class well would be putting out quite a bit more damage, with only minor down sides (armor and weapon limitations, 15/10/5 BAB, etc.). While this isn't a bad thing seeing how unimpressive the fighter is past the early levels, I put it out to you nice folks to help me with one question: How much is too much? On average, how much direct (or indirect) damage should a (mostly)melee class be putting out per round assuming average gear, stats, etc. at say level 1, level 5, etc?

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Vin

[Frog Dragon]

The thing is, damage really isn't a valid comparison. Simple fighter builds with a dip for pounce can get damage in the hundreds at single digit levels with little effort.
What you want to see is that the character can do other things than deal damage. The bonuses could stay, since this class couldn't PA as well as the fighter. However, you need to look into what else it should be able to do. Give abilities that allow the character to fly, etc. In essence, you don't want just damage, you want a host of abilities that possess an answer to most situations.
When the fighter is faced with a flying foe, he switches to a bow..... and deals around 20 damage a turn if we're generous because that's not his build focus. You don't want that to happen. Versatility is king.

[Venardhi]

Such abilities are available to those who pursue them.

[Temotei]

Title Response: A melee class should be about on par with the Tome of Battle classes or the psychic warrior if you want a class that's considered balanced.

Post Response: As mentioned, the fighter doesn't need help with numbers. They're easy enough to come by. If you have a class that's able to pump out damage far superior to anything else, you'll still end up with a tier 3/4/5, depending on what the class features are.

[lesser_minion]

You might be better off not worrying about it so much.

Try asking yourself some questions about the class as a whole, and make sure you have an overall direction to the class:

What does this class do? What makes this useful to a party?
Are there any places where it doesn't make sense for the character to be able to do this?
How can the character respond to those situations? Does her role change?
How can the character be personalised? What can I do to ensure the class is internally balanced?
Does the class have any abilities that are arbitrary? What can I do to get rid of them?


In answer to your specific question, the rogue's sneak attack progression is about reasonable as far as multiple attacks are concerned, and disintegrate is a reasonable bar for single powerful attacks. This does vary with level, however.