I think you're confusing what happens at the table with what happens in the fiction.
How does that help the fighter pick which one of his spells he wants to cast?
I think you're confusing what happens at the table with what happens in the fiction.
I'll throw out there that wizard "training" in Basic D&D (and I think AD&D, maybe later) took about 5-8 years longer than Fighter training.
Most of these, however, relate to casting in combat; and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] 's example was based on out-of-combat no-pressure casting.
And he's right - in no-pressure situations the casters are likely to rule the roost. Fair enough
Most of these, however, relate to casting in combat; and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] 's example was based on out-of-combat no-pressure casting.
And he's right - in no-pressure situations the casters are likely to rule the roost. Fair enough
So the question then becomes how to further rein them in in-pressure situations; and to [MENTION=48965]Imaro[/MENTION] 's list I'd add: any disruption interrupts the spell...risk of dangerous wild magic surges on interruption...do away with the very notion of 'combat casting'...spell placement not automatic (e.g. need to roll aim for AoE spells and risk hitting allies or even self)...make spells take longer to cast (in 3-4-5e terms e.g. start casting on rolled init. but don't resolve until end of round, and you can be interrupted during this time)...etc.
Lan-"wizardslayer weapons are a handy answer too"-efan
If they didn’t want to use a conflict resolution mechanic subsystem, they could have easily included the following resolution architecture:
1) All spells require an Arcana, Religion, Nature, Perform Check. Success and you’re good to go. Fail by 1-3 (I much prefer this than the DMG 1-2) and there is a complication (I mentioned some possibilities way upthread) ) but spell goes off. Failure equals no spell, but Complication. The maths should probably put it at something like 17 % Success, 66 % Success with Complication, 17 % Failure w/ Complication.
If I have time tonight, I’m going to flesh out the last session that I GMed 5e (18th level game with a Diviner Wizard, Fighter, and Thief). We aren’t getting anywhere the way we’re going so I’d be curious what people thought about the absolute domination of individual gamestates and overall play trajectory by the Diviner.
5e design could have changed the scope of play at all levels and scaled it so endgame Wizardly magic becomes extremely volatile (potentially changing the gamestate badly against the PCs).
If they didn’t want to use a conflict resolution mechanic subsystem, they could have easily included the following resolution architecture:
1) All spells require an Arcana, Religion, Nature, Perform Check. Success and you’re good to go. Fail by 1-3 (I much prefer this than the DMG 1-2) and there is a complication (I mentioned some possibilities way upthread) ) but spell goes off. Failure equals no spell, but Complication. The maths should probably put it at something like 17 % Success, 66 % Success with Complication, 17 % Failure w/ Complication.
2) Saving Throw maths should be rescaled accordingly so spellcasters aren’t hit with compound probability double whammy.
That would make spellcasting (a) more interesting (in terms of impact on the gamestate), (b) more balanced as spells become more powerful and loadouts become more proliferate, and (b) more genre appropriate.
This would have been a simple thing to do at the design phase and would have made the game infinitely more fun to GM.
The concerns that I would have with inconsistant spell casting is that narratively it is not accurate and mechanically it is not fun leaving you with a pretty niche solution.
What does "narratively it is not accurate" mean? There's lots of relevant fiction with unreliable spellcasting, and plenty of fantasy lit where casting in combat is not even an option (or at least, doesn't happen). The D&D version of a magic wielder (almost any of them) has become so much of its own thing that it seems to be warping what people see and write in the genre.
As far as "not fun" goes...well I suppose it wouldn't be for the caster players who are expecting to have everything work automatically, but...a) I've run other games where this was not the case with no problems and b) how is it any more disappointing than when a Fighter or Rogue rolls low damage or misses?