One Level Scale to Rule Them All?

M.L. Martin · Aug 19, 2007

WotC designer Rodney Thompson just posted this on his GenCon blog thread at the WotC boards

WotC_Rodney said:
When someone came up to me to talk about D&D 4th Edition, I was allowed to share this secret with them: Wizards will be able to cast 25th-level spells.

Dare we hope that the disjoint between character level and spell level is going the way of other design artifacts? Oh happy day!

EricNoah · Aug 19, 2007

Boy if you think there are arguments about which spell should be what level now...

But maybe that's not what he's talking about.

Agamon · Aug 19, 2007

Cool.

Ankh-Morpork Guard · Aug 19, 2007

Matthew L. Martin said:
Dare we hope that the disjoint between character level and spell level is going the way of other design artifacts? Oh happy day!

I have to say, that difference in levels between character and spells is one thing that I've always seen drive new players insane. Eventually they get their brain around it, but it just always seems to be a problem.

Depending on how its done, this could really end up as just a change of names more than hard mechanics...though I kind of doubt that.

KingCrab · Aug 19, 2007

Oh my. I can't imagine deciding exactly what level each spell should be in a fair way with that many levels. Perhaps spells can be cast at different levels because the spells all scale? A 1st level fireball could be a tiny little blast?

Whizbang Dustyboots · Aug 19, 2007

EricNoah said:
Boy if you think there are arguments about which spell should be what level now...

Actually, it should make it easier, if it's more granular. Hopefully the new spell creation tools are at least as detailed as they were in 3E. (I'm intending to convert a lot of spells for my home campaign.)

Agamon · Aug 19, 2007

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Actually, it should make it easier, if it's more granular. Hopefully the new spell creation tools are at least as detailed as they were in 3E. (I'm intending to convert a lot of spells for my home campaign.)

The way they're making everything else simpler and less formulaic, I doubt that will be the case.

Jeph · Aug 19, 2007

KingCrab said:
Oh my. I can't imagine deciding exactly what level each spell should be in a fair way with that many levels. Perhaps spells can be cast at different levels because the spells all scale? A 1st level fireball could be a tiny little blast?

I hope so! Especially if that means I can just learn Fireball instead of Lesser Flaming Orb, Fireball, Flaming Orb, Delayed Blast Fireball, and Meteor Swarm.

Plane Sailing · Aug 19, 2007

The simplest way would probably be to have a whole range of spells which scale with level at are available at 1st level onwards. Graded damage spells, graded influence/charm/dominate spells, graded transportation spells, graded defensive spells, graded wishes (starting with 'incredibly limited wish'!)... that sort of thing.

Cyberzombies Elements of Magic v1.0 did that sort of thing quite nicely.

Cheers

Baron Opal · Aug 19, 2007

Perhaps you can choose the level at which you cast a spell. Fireball is no longer a third level spell, it is a spell that you cast at a specific level?

One Level Scale to Rule Them All?

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