If it is a player's character, they should be familiar with it enough to do it quickly from over a year of practice.
If it is a DM's invention, they had prep time to achieve a desired effect for what is most likely the featured opponent.
How Important is Magic to Dungeons and Dragons? - Third Edition vs Fourth Edition
- Thread starter Hexmage-EN
- Start date
If it is a player's character, they should be familiar with it enough to do it quickly from over a year of practice.
If it is a DM's invention, they had prep time to achieve a desired effect for what is most likely the featured opponent.
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Maybe 60 seconds depending on how long it takes me to look up unholy aura.
Otherwise I just write this at the top of the sheet:
+5 nat armor
BAB = CL
+4 DEX
+4 CON
+6 STR
+3 luck divine favor
+1 luck saves prayer
It helps that I know what most of those spells do (otherwise I would not be running a 19th level adventure.)
No calculations are made until they're needed, and then they're applied on the fly.
BBEG just failed a Reflex save? Would the +3 bonus from the Dex and Prayer help?
Did he just get hit with a fire attack? Ok, now I write a little 120 above "fire" and subtract the damage from that protection from energy tally.
That kind of thing.
Mustrum_Ridcully
Hero
Will Trailblazer contain such "get organized" tips, too? I think that would be neat. (And I think some such tips can be applied regardless of edition - and sometimes even game.)
Hunter In Darkness
First Post
This is what I do and my players must do. If you have a spell you must have its bonus listed or you can't use it. Its your responsibility as a caster to know what your spells your casting do. By 19th level if you don't know what the spells do I really don't know what to tell you.
Listing such things it a real time saver
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Yes. We struggled with the "buffs are a pain in the ass" issue for a long time before deciding that they were a component of good, tactical play, and their absence from high level play in particular would take away more than you gained.
So rather than take a heavy-handed approach curtailing buffs, we're looking at the things that we already do in our game to make them manageable, and we'll share what we know.
We will, however, be hammering dispel magic. Its current implementation is just terrible for play.
re: Ritual time and cost
With regard to time, it should be noted that a) casting from a scroll cuts the casting time down to half and b) it is a balancing method to prevent encroachment on skills. Non-combat magic in 4e via rituals is more powerful than skills but at a cost of being more time-consuming...
Cost I'm not sure why they bothered. While for example, Comprehend Languages is expensive at 1st level, by the time you hit 5th or 6th level, the cost is a non-issue. Only thing I can think of is that they want to gradually phase rituals into the campaign world when they first become available.
re: Comprehend Languages
This spell has changed slightly over the editions. Note that the ritual version lasts 24 hours and if your Arcana check is high enough, you can actually write and/or speak the language and you don't need to actually touch the person/writing.
With regard to time, it should be noted that a) casting from a scroll cuts the casting time down to half and b) it is a balancing method to prevent encroachment on skills. Non-combat magic in 4e via rituals is more powerful than skills but at a cost of being more time-consuming...
Cost I'm not sure why they bothered. While for example, Comprehend Languages is expensive at 1st level, by the time you hit 5th or 6th level, the cost is a non-issue. Only thing I can think of is that they want to gradually phase rituals into the campaign world when they first become available.
re: Comprehend Languages
This spell has changed slightly over the editions. Note that the ritual version lasts 24 hours and if your Arcana check is high enough, you can actually write and/or speak the language and you don't need to actually touch the person/writing.
It is the phenomenon of a change in one variable causing changes in other variables. The seed variable is the initial variable. This could have been gleaned from context.
This is making a virtue out of necessity.
Mournblade94
Adventurer
I can agree with this statement.
I find the math to simple to bring a game to a screeching halt.
I don't think anyone is saying the math is complex. What it is is a lot of dull, simple arithmetic that's hard for some folks to concentrate on when they're gaming, particularly if it's late on a work night, they've been drinking, or both.
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