3.5 wbl how strict?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Magic items and abilities are supposed to be something special and rare, not some interchangeable 'bonus I need because my class doesn't provide what I need'. If you absolutely need a magic item for your class to work, it's your fault for picking an incompetent class. The mage is fine casting because it's an ability that they alone possess. A generic magic item should not exist because there is nothing special about it.

I agree with you conceptually, but that's not how 3.5 was designed. The underlying math assumes you're getting magic weapons, armor, stat boosting items, and so on. (The easiest place to see that is AC-- attack bonuses go up with level, AC is roughly static without items). The "classes can't contribute without items" thing is probably accidental, but the need for "big six" magic items is very real. You really can't cut them out of 3.5 without some sort of replacement.