Community

Nov 21, 2012 -- 10:19AM, Saelorn wrote:

Nov 21, 2012 -- 5:18AM, Mithrus wrote:

Not to derail, but I'd rather the spell lists not be split, since I see no viable reason to keep divine and arcane magical effects separate. If I want a robed caster that can heal and cast fireball, then the balance shouldn't be that I'd have to multi-class to do it. If the DM wants to keep to traditions, then that would be their choice, but it shouldn't be baked into the system, IMO.

At least traditionally speaking, that is intended as one of the major limitations to prevent casters from doing everything.  Wizards can't heal, and clerics can't blast (very well).  Some editions may have failed to enforce that restriction, but that doesn't change the reason why the design practice is in place.

In games where this restriction is not in place, you quickly get spellcasters who feel very similar.  Every spellcaster has both a fireball and a heal spell, because you'd be crazy not to.

It's still a function of resource management. If I had a caster that knew Cure * Wounds and Fireball, I could still only cast a finite number of them. Granted, previous editions made it so casters of mid+ level had TOO many spell slots, so the above combination would be too good. Limit the overall number of slots, and now it will balance itself out. Keeping the spells separate wasn't a good fix, and isn't the best one either.