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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 9:59PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2004
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Legends and LoreBalancing Wizards in D&Dby Mike MearlsThe wizard is up next on the agenda for Legends & Lore, but with a twist! Mike takes you deeper into the wizard by exploring caster dominance. Talk about this column here.
astralArchivist.com - 4e D&D house rules, homebrew, and story hours - now featuring ENWorld's Zeitgeist adventure path! Will Thibault is a winged, feathered serpent rarely found anywhere except in warm, jungle-like regions or flying through the ether. Due to his intelligence and powers he is regarded with awe by the inhabitants of his homelands and is considered to be divine.
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 10:12PM
#2
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The last point makes me feel like spells won't really say what they do, and that worries me. I like rules, rules give structure and order.
If it is instead that they give clearly defined rules but the player improvisaton is enocuraged by the game so the DM can instead of using the mechanics can say something else happens (based on the player description, etc), then that might be just fine. I am curious how this will work out in organized play, of course (since that's about half of my D&D so far).
Overall, I like the goals. I like the solution for the quadratic wizard issue including the spell slot concept and the at-will cantrips.
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 10:19PM
#3
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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I cannot agree more with you Mike. This really nail it down.
I like Wands and Scrolls balance attempt, as well as Spell slot limitation and Spells not scaling, unless memorized at higher level!
Here's a hug Mike, you can take the rest of the week off. You deserve it 
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 10:26PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Nov 13, 2004
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Not bad. Not bad at all. Reading this list, it reminded me of a similar list I made in a topic here a month or so ago. =)
Making a scroll require expending a spell slot (which casters will have fewer of) seems like a good idea, although I do rather like the idea of rituals that anyone can cast. I hope they don't revert entirely to 3e's way of wand usage - I'd rather have a magic wand that improves spellcasting accuracy/ability, not a disposable stick that happens to contain a number of uses of Cure Wounds or Magic Missiles.
4e D&D is not a "Tabletop MMO." It is not Massively Multiplayer, and is usually not played Online. Come up with better descriptions of your complaints, cuz this one means jack ****.
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 10:51PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Mar 19, 2004
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My gravest concern lies with the rationale used for reduced spell slots: the power level of old vancian spells doesn't suddenly mutate in the presence of weaker but spammable at-will magic, even if there's less to go around. Gonna pretend that statement's merely being used as a smokescreen towards some other workings and move on.
I'm also not sure whether this "dangerous spellcasting" carries any weight in balancing spells at all when wizards are already plenty vulnerable against prolonged fire to begin with (I'm guessing lack AC, HP, and weapon proficiencies aren't going away).
And hot dog, scrolls are no longer the nonsensical "Stacks of Doom" that they used to be. More interesting, it seems certain that wands are going to have an entirely different function than they used to, especially since they're not going to use actual (Wizard? Spellcaster?) spells. I'm gonna make a wild toss and guess that:
A.) There'll be a greater variety of spells in wands (or staffs, or implements whatever) rather than in class spell lists
B.) Many implements will have "better" at will magic (believe this was stated somewhere; basically the caster's equivalent of weapons)
C.) Certain implements will basically act like more permanent scrolls.
The rest I either don't have much an opinion at this time or it's been said before.
EDIT: And furthermore, +1 to the title.
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 11:14PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Mar 21, 2009
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This line makes me a little nervous:
"Grease allows a rogue caught in a giant crab's claw to wriggle free with ease."
I think this would be a very cool application of grease. Creativity should be rewarded. The problem is that creative solutions are only creative once. If we allow this interpretation of grease, then when the party encounters the BBEG with his two-handed sword, the wizard casts grease on the sword and the BBEG is permanently disarmed? That will get old, fast. Or you disarm the BBEG (assuming some disarm rule is in place), and turn his weapon invisible, another trick that is cool the first time and then risks becoming the "win button."
There is some hope in the article, about preparing things at higher slots. So a grease to loosen the grip might have variable DC based on the preparation level, so if you prepare it for that effect, you'd use your high level slot to do so. Still, I don't think that these creative solutions should have the capability to nullify an entire encounter, but these situations are very hard to predict...
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 11:25PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Mar 19, 2004
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I've a feeling that some rule source will allow the DM to flat-out ignore or refuse those "half-baked", fiat mandatory parts of spells. At the very least, there'll be greater encouragement for DMs to not take those incomplete rules literally at all.
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1 year ago ::
May 13, 2012 - 11:29PM
#8
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Oh man, I totally called the "scrolls use spell slots" idea. Probably no one read that post though. Not even me. Oh well.
Anyway, this article is pretty reassuring, though I think it leaves some room for vague, open-ended spells. I guess the playtest will tell us more.
Ed_Warlord, on what it takes to make a thread work: I think for it to be really constructive, everyone would have to be honest with each other, and with themselves. Quotation of the moment
Show
Areleth: How does this help the problems we have with Fighters? Do you think that every time I thought I was playing D&D what I was actually doing was slamming my head in a car door and that if you just explain how to play without doing that then I'll finally enjoy the game?
Quotation of ALL moments
Show
TD: That's why they put me on the front of every book. This is the dungeon, and I am the dragon.
A word of warning though: I'm totally not a level appropriate encounter.
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1 year ago ::
May 14, 2012 - 12:35AM
#9
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I’ve removed content from this thread because trolling/baiting is a violation of the Code of Conduct. You can review the Code here: www.wizards.com/Company/About.aspx?x=wz_...Please keep your posts polite, on-topic, and refrain from making personal attacks.You are welcome to disagree with one another but please do so respectfully and constructively. If you wish to report a post for Code of Conduct violation, click on the “Report Post” button above the post and this will submit your report to the moderators on duty.
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1 year ago ::
May 14, 2012 - 1:18AM
#10
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My gravest concern lies with the rationale used for reduced spell slots: the power level of old vancian spells doesn't suddenly mutate in the presence of weaker but spammable at-will magic, even if there's less to go around. Gonna pretend that statement's merely being used as a smokescreen towards some other workings and move on.
You're right about the power comment. Spamming Magic Missile won't make you a god at higher levels. On the other hand, all those low level spell slots were used on utility spells. High level wizards were extremely versatile and capable of dominating most out of combat challenges because they didn't have anything better to do with those low level spells.
I think they are just making room for rituals.
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