D&D 5E In Depth Critique of Part 3 of Basic Rules

[Pallidore]

Having played all editions, am offering the amalgamated thoughts of me and others from the past on some thorny parts of D&D Magic and how this edition looks.

 

[Li Shenron]

Can you copy the text into the thread, organised in multiple posts.? It would make ut more readable.

 

[ShadoWWW]

The Word file contains following:

REVIEW OF 5^TH EDITION RULES (CONTINUED)
PART 3: THE RULES OF MAGIC: SPELLCASTING

General
Before I wade into specifics, let me thank WotC for making 5E cohesive enough, and with enough previously broken stuff already fixed, that I can easily mend what appear to be the remaining broken parts. With 3.5, that wasn’t the case. And thanks also to Dominic Amann, Wayne Shaw, Chris Campbell, and the many people on the DnD List and other lists and forums in the early and mid 2000s who provided more than a few of the central ideas and words espoused below (and my apologies to folks if I have incorporated their ideas and words but forgotten who exactly said what!). I have blended their thoughts and comments (and my own) into this treatise and apologize if I have misinterpreted anything! There is some repeated emphasis to the points I’ll make. This is not unintended; I am shaking the tree pretty severely in parts, and since repetition is often the mother of comprehension (as well as also avoiding having points too readily dismissed), a few things will bear reinforcement! Now, onto the review of Part 3!
There is a wonderful description of magic, its place, and spells, on page 78 (and some on page 81).
For the basic game, magic users prepare spells, then fill (use/expend) their allotted slots by choosing (even repeatedly) a prepared spell because the prepared spell does not disappear when cast. And it is a nice feature that prepared spells stay there until the caster prepares something else. When the slots refresh after a long rest, the caster then isn’t vulnerable (on a predictable schedule) while she prepares the same ones over and over again, as was necessary previously.
Casting spells at a higher level, using a higher slot, is detailed. Often this will mean increased effects, more creatures, etc.
Combat and tactical situations were so overly emphasized in 4E that Rituals, which were a brilliant division, became very underused. Unfortunately in 5E, they are now rare and subdued. Rituals in 5E are just like spells (although unfortunately, only a few spells have the ritual description), but if you cast them as the ritual (which is longer), it doesn’t expend a spell slot.
Design philosophy was to generally keep range and durations of spells the same no matter what the caster’s level is. Slot level used was the discriminator for other properties or expanded abilities of the spell, but generally not for range or duration (with some exceptions).
Concentration nullifies and precludes many of the uber (broken) combos of the past: “Concentration is an odd rule, because though our overall goal is to reduce complexity, it specifically makes the game more complex. However, adding that small bit of complexity helps to lessen the complexity of the game overall, encouraging a play style that helps level the field between casters and noncasters, while also deemphasizing control and buff effects. Limiting them to one [spell requiring concentration] per caster helps regulate how many complex spells hit the table at once. It's a bit of focused complexity in one aspect of the game that makes the rest of the game move quicker and easier.” (2/10/14)
However, and this is significant, maintaining concentration on one spell still allows the caster to cast succeeding spells that don’t require concentration. This somewhat dilutes the strength of the concentration rule, but does permit casters to do something besides just maintaining a spell (which, to a player, would be effectively doing nothing).
Characters don’t automatically know if a spell has been cast on (or attempted to be cast on) them.
The spell stat blocks are not giving the info up front and in bold that you need, like saving throws or damage. The descriptions of many spells are brief. Perhaps either a FAQ will appear later, or the DMG will have adjudication or additional clarification/interpretation, to help with the inevitable questions.
It’s really NOT clear when spell components are consumed and when they’re not EXCEPT when it specifically says so. It also appears that a spell focus can supersede the need for any material component except an expensive one.
Overall Irritants
If it is the “campaign world balancing” theme that adventurers with ANY powers are incredibly rare, the rules have done a poor job of explaining that—or why that would be. But even caster extreme rarity brings its own problems—of control and viability.
This clarion attention to spellcasting problems is not to suit myself. It’s for the inexperienced DMs and their players. I can fix anything WotC breaks (or, more accurately, has left unfixed). But inexperienced DMs often won’t know how. Which has a high chance of spoiling the game for the long run. And I want DnD to survive and prosper in the long run.
While some spells did get fixed or modded enough (often by adding an expensive material component) to not be real problems anymore, plenty did not. In fact, a case can be made that this spell set is only a little more than a slightly slimmed, slighted modded version of the core 3.5 spell set that had a plethora of problems.
Spells are back to the 0-9 “level” spells. For a design bunch that said it wanted to minimize confusion for the newbie, this is an F grade, especially because 4E took a stab at solving it and the 5E design team KNEW it was a problem. Once again, kowtowing to grognards took a front seat over putting their design where their mouth was. They put in one line on page 78 (long after, it should be noted, that “level“ had been used repeatedly): ”Spell level and character level don’t correspond directly” and then give an example, but because the example has no discernible pattern for the newbie, it will lessen confusion only a smidge. Better late than never for even a poor job, but sheesh.
It is irksome that it appears memories are short at WotC (or perhaps they just don’t want to deal with the highly emotional and argumentative segment of 3E/Pathfinder PLAYERS who lack vision, understanding, or concern about anything except their own selfish playing enjoyment). Instead of addressing all the issues (especially about spells and magic items, but about campaign viability as well) we brought up over YEARS at the DnD List from 2000 to 2008, WotC just brought the 3E spells back with a bit of touch up. With the rapid rise through levels, and ubiquity of videogame-restart type magic of 5E, WotC seems to have thrown in the towel on long-term campaigns. Ironic, perhaps bitterly, inexplicably ironic, given how much new emphasis they put on social interaction within the game world. Or maybe they just figure that given how fast characters level up, any problem spells won’t be a problem for long before the “campaign” folds or hits 20^th level and things (hopefully!) start up again. It’s not going to help DMs, however, if PCs and NPCs have ready access to story-breaking, plot-breaking, game-breaking or PC-destructive (save or be neutralized/killed) spells. I may be incorrect in this, because WotC HAS modified some things, and the Concentration mechanic is a good one, but it doesn’t appear sufficient. Extensive play by all of us in DnD Land (far outside the 175,000 playtesters) will tell!
There exist spells that come with potential or actual drawbacks, because they make certain challenges a lot less interesting at mid to high levels, and often even at lower levels. These can be things like attack spells with no save, save or die spells, teleport, spells that radically increase movement, mass invisibility and Passwall (heck, the 3.5 DMG on page 14 even said it was unbalancing) that can change how adventuring works, and divination spells that markedly reduce secrecy, intrigue, mystery, and challenge. These as written often subtly and not so subtly change the milieu; that is, they are not only possibly questionable because of their immediate individual spell effects, but they affect the plausibility of the campaign world as a whole. This is true even where an “antidote” spell or spells exist to the spell or spells that are problematic, because such “defenses” assume too many variables: knowledge of intent or potential to be “scanned,” knowing and being able to cast the right spell to oppose the effect(s), and being able to cast that spell or spells on time or for long enough, right environmental circumstances, and so on. Things like grapple, for example, are supposed to be formidable to spellcasters, but any number of things can defeat it (and not just Freedom of Movement via pre-cast or a ring). In any given campaign situation, there are likely going to be more intrusions than there are adequate defenses, and DnD generally favors the attack over the defense. These problem spells can turn a Heroic Fantasy feel campaign into a Super-Hero feel campaign at higher levels, and even at levels before 8th.
Spells and magic have a great, and often little understood, effect on believability. If the DM does not understand these, and keep up with changes and impacts, the campaign can easily degenerate into unbelievability, where everything exists in some artificial gold, glory, gobs of magic bubble- world that completely revolves around the immune PCs—nearly opposite of the desired 5E immersion. Furthermore, too much and too powerful magic debilitates playing groups who don’t have to think through a problem or challenge, but just have magic solve it—again, precisely opposite of the story/setting immersion effect desired.
Specifically, certain spells and magical abilities and magic items allow characters and enemies to do things that are drastic, and may have an unraveling effect on the underlying game world. Magical travel, powerful divinations, creation and healing spells all begin to make the game seem more and more contrived. Whether as a DM you can tolerate this only to 9th level, or you can accommodate it up to 16th, the ceiling is usually there: it practically becomes a different game, and one that is not necessarily to the tastes of the ones who gravitated towards the genre in the first place.
There is a sense of diminishing returns for players, too. Players of rogues and fighters that have spent levels honing and using their skills and capabilities find that a wizard or cleric can make them redundant with the wave of a finger or a quick prayer. Or that some ubiquitous magic item can. And these classes can feel a bit discriminated against when they have range penalties to their attacks, but the wizard and cleric often do not, even when the range is super long.
Adventures can degenerate into divination type spell, buff, teleport, neutralize type spell, plunder, teleport, repeat. First strike becomes crucial. Magic begins to feel mundane, and there is a feeling of artificiality about it that makes willing suspension of disbelief harder (perhaps more so for us old fashioned folk).
Magical primacy (and the antidotes—themselves magical—required to counter) are a theme throughout this examination: something makes it easy, some counter makes all or part of it hard or impossible again, some counter-counter restores it, and so on for the overloaded DM. The use of skills, ingenuity, information gathering, and so forth recede; everything becomes magic countering magic countering magic, ad infinitum.
The game seems better served with a design philosophy that magic will not solve every problem. Having powerful magic not be ubiquitous helps to keep the focus on the players’ problem solving abilities, teamwork, ingenuity, PC non-magical abilities, etc. It also returns some focus to spells that in the standard game have been largely ignored or overshadowed (and hence, unused) because of their powerful “competitors.”
Story Busters
Of the schools of magic, Divination is one of the most problematic for the campaign as a whole: Consider a town council, which has a good chance of having representatives from the clergy, mage guild, etc. The first time a member or prominent citizen died in a mysterious "accident," they’d put a full investigation into it, applying all the magical resources available to bear. It is therefore unlikely, given D&D magic, that it'd be possible to cover this up for even one cycle, let alone multiples. It would be worse than Minority Report.
And that doesn’t even take into consideration what an evil diviner could do. Learning who one’s friends and family are, and where they live, could make life hell for the heroes or anyone else, if the diviner and his minions threaten them or take them hostage. It’s one thing to be able to do that with some good intel and luck; it’s another to be able to do it with regularity.
Save (if you’re allowed) or be neutralized (or worse)
Many spells or abilities that don’t allow saves can neutralize (or worse) characters or monsters, outside of all challenge ratings—and enjoyment. And then there are the spells that if someone fails, they are a goner. These spells typically include death spells, charm and dominate spells, flesh to stone, etc. These spells are prime objectives for maximizing DCs. Some of the worst kinds are spells that not only end the victim as a threat but make him work for you, i.e. dominate, (and charms to a lesser extent). And given the fact that killer spells are often tossed around high-level combat like arrows, this is all the more affecting—someone or many someones are going to blow their save eventually. Everything can come to hinge on these things. Or it can come down to who rolls the initiative to go first, as the first one often wins. Many players and DMs won’t find that very much fun for long.
Healing
Several times a day a character can be brought back from the brink of death, and furthermore, patched up, by the hit point battery that is the divine spellcaster. Want to have a character (NPC) give a last request to the players before he dies? No... wait, too late ... the cleric already healed him... (or revived, for that matter). That NPC is as good as new. Stories and drama often fall victim to these spells.
And things become so matter-of-fact blasé. Whether it’s the cleric, or the rogue using UMD, the use of curing/restoring wands can become ubiquitous, making the setting feel more scientific than fantasy like.
Other Aggravations
The biggest problems occur when a DM spends many hours/days devising a fabulous campaign/adventure, and then the players exploit a spell or two that shortcuts the whole thing in minutes. This sort of thing often leads only to trouble and recriminations, with the spells usually being held to blame. It's not that the collective intellect of the players shouldn't come up with superior responses to what you devise, but that it is done casually (and even contemptuously) by a mere spell or two.
Many DMs consider material component costs to not be an effective balancer for problematic game spells. Some groups can become quite happy with the "spend money to make money" paradigm, once they get used to how successful it is. Basically, the cost becomes no object in the default game. It is very hard on the DM to make suitable challenges for them, and more often than not, even suitable “challenge rating” dragons and other opponents are defeated within a short time.
High level gaming can become a headache. Magic and special abilities can slow combat to almost a stand still. The party can use spells to cheat most standard adventures.
Campaign Effect of Magic
DnD is in many ways two distinct games. One is from levels 1 to about 8 (or even just 4!), where "the laws of physics" seem to hold, one can imagine normal economic laws holding sway, various human (and non-human) endeavors can be predictable, and equilibrium maintained. The other is from 9th (or even 5^th) level and up. At this point, economic reality seems to be ignored, death is no longer a serious impediment, power will tend to accumulate rapidly, and many other rather difficult to model effects are possible.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), most game worlds appear to be built around levels 1-8, and fall apart in internal consistency above that. Others build around the higher levels, but fail to adequately explain how levels 1-8 (not to mention NPC low level commoners) could possibly integrate into such a world.
Lesser Restoration on poison and other things may be a small impact, granted, but you should factor into your game world that poison isn't as common a threat. It's just these small, incremental changes to a society—all taken in the aggregate—that will have huge ripple effects, resulting in the transformation of that society.
Magic would likely have a technological impact on the world, especially in the areas of civil services. Think what a city with great tax base could do if it contracted or employed one or more mages to improve the city. The local police force would utilize mages to do detective work. Imagine CSI Greyhawk City. How many common criminals could get away with murder? Many hospitals all over the city would contain priests that would have healing skills and be able to cast spells. What about government resources applied to the war machine and espionage? Then there are the black market and underground organizations. All are wealthy and would have mages working for them. Of course these things would all be costly and time consuming, but so are our real world endeavors.

An example of civil engineering would be running water. All we often do for that today is dig a well, pump the water up 100 feet to a water tank and let gravity do the rest. In a magic society, use divination to find the water source, use (or devise) various Earth moving spells, build a tower, (once again using spells for construction), cast reverse gravity or something similar at the bottom of the well with permanency, and have the smiths build the plumbing system.

A healing deity in the campaign will have an impact. What if all of her followers are required to go out and heal as many people as they can? They will flock to wars and help people on both sides. They will roam the lands looking to help anyone and set up all the hospices all over the place. Their mundane training deals with the healing arts and they rely on spells for what they cannot treat normally.
And these individual spell changes are not even the biggest changes in all likelihood. Probably the biggest change upon society would come not from individual spells, but from the creation of permanent magic items. While rarer, they last potentially forever, and can work more often per day than spells. The profit motive would drive the creation of items that can create an income stream, even if there was a small cursed chance. It'd be especially good if the income can last for many generations. Build a bed of cure disease, for example, and the great grandkids have a job of no effort (except guarding against its theft).
Even if yours or anybody else’s world has only a few magic users, wouldn't the government hire them for military objectives? City-states would certainly hire mages to improve the standards of living. Improved hygiene would affect health and lifespan. Where do you want to live? In Greyhawk, Waterdeep, River Heaven, etc., where you’d likely have running water, garbage pick up, paved streets, street lights, and hospitals, or do you want to live in the country without all of those wonderful things? Now look how much your tax base has just increased with all the new city folk. More taxes can be spent on more improvements that bring more people to pay more taxes. Society grows, the quality of living improves. All due to the implementation of magic. [Note: I realize that we in the real world do not always behave logically in the manner described above, lol]
Magic breaks the rules of society. Great constructions in the real world were made by artisans, often taking more than a century. It wasn't a matter of money but a matter of technology. An "artisan-spellcaster" can make perfect constructions, far more beautiful because they just have to point a finger where artisans have to find "technical tricks" to create the effect. And even a cathedral won't take centuries to make for a spellcaster. A king or a church will pay thousands of platinum for that, so normally, there wouldn't be hardly any master non-spellcasting artisans in a D&D world, because it's a perfect job for a spellcaster (lot of money, good reputation). Quickly, it will be clear that spellcaster is the best way to live, so the society will develop itself toward spellcasting. Then, in one or two generations, the average wisdom and intelligence will possibly go up in the cities. This new generation of spellcasters will need to find a place in the society, and the first "jobs" will be created around society survival. Defense, food, law...
Then item creation will become so common that the price could decrease year after year. Most everybody is okay as this system develops. People are easier to control because only a minority will be willing to risk losing the comfort granted by the society—look at the real world; who risks to lose his job for his idea? Not many. The good and neutral gods take part of the deserved credit (and the thanks and worship of the peoples), and even the evil gods are not too unhappy, because evil acts will be even more shocking in these comfortable societies (and corruption never ends). Magic can keep natural areas safe, limit birth, ease the travels… even druids could be happy with the "spellcasting development" of a society.
The problem as it stands is that magic is far too reliable, producing better and more accurate results than anything we can accomplish in the real world. It works according to a rigid set of principles, is absurdly predictable, and utterly reliable. Only divine intervention or the sporadic appearance of insanely powerful, truly chaotic forces (such as elder dragon or higher type beasts who have no interest in money or power and only seek chaos and destruction) could disrupt civilization enough that the inexorable progress of magic-backed civilization might be halted. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before the powerful sorts get together and hash out a mutually beneficial agenda that spells retreat or doom for the chaotic elements in the world and leads to a stable civilization that benefits everybody (but particularly the rich and powerful, just like in real life).
[h=1]What Doesn’t Help[/h]Anytime the only counter is “Well, a good DM would not let…” or “Well, a good DM would know to…” and so on, you have a situation that is likely broken. Blathering statements that the DM just has to get more creative and get more experience also don’t help, and certainly don’t help the hapless new DM. “Learn the right spells and overcome this tactic or tactics” is far easier said than done, and a headache to already overburdened DMs; even many veteran DMs slip up in this regard (and sometimes more than just occasionally; even self-confident DMs find they have neglected to account for something). Unfortunately for DMs who adjudicate these problem spells, the game assumption is that the right magic (spell or item) is often on hand and in place. And, which is the case far more often than not, if one is not a member of a discussion list, or reads forum message boards, then one is not going to be aware of the “obvious” problems or challenge areas.
Concerning many of these problem spells, no resources are being expended, nor risks taken, by the party. If the PCs are overcoming most everything relatively easily by using the rules, it is sometimes suggested that the DM reduce or deny xp awards. This has the effect of punishing the PCs for being clever. Don’t blame them if the system rules are broken.
For the average unaware DM and players, this is where the default game often breaks down. In the first place, most people when playing DnD want to play a fantasy game, not a science fiction game, and are trying to get away from too much feel of the modern world. Yet the rules clearly allow and reasoning expects these things to be in play.
Secondly, the game design is foisting upon the DM the heavy responsibility to think through and carry to logical conclusion all the ramifications of ubiquitous high level magic. Even in those instances where the DM is up to the task in both desire and ability, it can be a headache. Any failure not only raises the WTF factor among the players, but spoils suspension of disbelief.
Thirdly, when too much of the above happens, players cannot relate to the world, and they don't take it too seriously, meaning they try endless wild crap until they get bored and the campaign falls apart.
When the DnD characters don't have to work through hardly any of the challenges or perils that populate classic fantasy reading and movies, they feel disdainfully superior for a while, then they get bored.
Of course, there are those fantasy novels full of constant high magic, but they only add to the difficulty, not subtract from it. Everyone brings him up, but one of the reasons Tolkien became popular was because he didn't overshadow his creation with continual heavy magic. More importantly for DnD, which is trying to attract and keep new players, is that those players will likely come to the game with this very reference and expectation in mind. Gary Gygax, for all his faults, knew that and tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent the game from being flooded with heavy magic, or, barring that, ameliorate its effects (also unsuccessful).
Spells Overview
Some spells are listed below just because the DM should be aware of their new character and try to adjust accordingly. Others are listed because they have various problematic issues. Ones not listed are presumed to be without known problems.
While some broken spells got fixed (like Heroes’ Feast now having a significant cost), and some got “fixed” in the way Pathfinder sometimes “fixed” broken 3.5 spells, many—too many—did not. Few of these spells would be a big problem in isolated or infrequent use. But the difficulty is that, barring some insanity provision or other limiter, they would not be so (little) used.
The Spells
Aid: Is good enough that it will likely become a standard thing to cast, especially given that it works on multiple characters and lasts for 8 hours, meaning that even if the initial boost goes away, the maximum boost remains so that characters can be healed above their normal maximum.
Bless: Another good spell. Multiple characters getting a boost to their attack numbers or saves for a minute.
Charm Person: Among its other “features,” the intelligence gathering ability of this spell is immense. And fighters and others typically won’t have a strong suit in the Wisdom saving throw.
Commune: The upstairs/downstairs hotline. Contacting the deity or designated agent to get answers often takes the place of recon, diplomacy, information gathering, infiltration, group planning, making independent decisions, etc. For the price of a minute or two and some holy water, the deity/servants can be bugged constantly (daily at least) with questions. (As if all the deities and their agents have to do is answer these types of questions.) But by the spell, the divine entities have to answer the call. Knock, knock (Commune). "Is Mr. X (the mysterious guy they've heard about) evil?" "I don't know" won't look too impressive to the clerics back on the mortal plane. "Wait a moment, (as in, I've got to find him and cast a spell)" won't either. The game system design sets up these incongruities.
Comprehend Languages: No need to bother with such trifles as what languages you know or can learn; this 1^st level spell, known to many Tom, Dick, and Gronk wizzes (and in the future, who knows) lets you understand oral and written communication, no matter how weird or alien the language. Of course, there are, as usual, some presumably magical “antidotes”—in this case secret page and arcane sigils—but these are only for the written part. So what looks like an okay spell has several sorts of game play problems, including subduing the very immersion/roleplaying things that knowing a language help facilitate! Making this spell ubiquitous hand waves problems of communication for PCs in the interest of getting on with the isolated adventure, and richness and diversity of language differences are shunted aside.
Cone of Cold: nice feature that if a creature is killed by this, it becomes a frozen statue.
Cure Wounds: It doesn’t affect undead (in a negative way) now, but it is nicely simplified given that casting it at a higher level than first gives an additional 1d8. Yet curing comes at little or no cost. There is no material component (and certainly no costly one) cost. How can a cleric, even a warlike one, turn them away when it doesn’t cost anything to cast these spells? 1^st and 2^nd level cures, if history is a guide, don’t even have to be “granted”; the cleric casts them via his own faith. And if a cleric thought the pestering was bad now, wait until she can cast Mass Cures.
All this curing ability takes away from the Heal (Medicine) skill and natural healing, not to mention herbalists and other healer-types, another negative impact on the immersion. Heavy emphasis will have to be made on the rarity of clerics who can actually cast spells, but this will only help, not solve the problem.
Then there is the campaign impact: the DM must decide how prevalent healing/curing is going to be, and what limits there are, if any, of availability to the general population. Whatever decisions are made have a major impact on the feel, flavor, and believability of the campaign-world. For instance, clerics will probably heal the people that truly need it, stabilize the rest, and get to the others the next day. This only applies to mortal wounds, naturally; if one is talking about damage that will heal on its own, the clerics can afford to be pickier about who they treat. Still, the difficulty is that healing is so available, even if not always perfectly available.
Darkness: doesn’t say that if the “dispelling a light spell” cancels the darkness too.
Detect Magic: is back as a spell. How irritating. The good stride that WotC made in making Arcana a great skill in 4E—and getting away from this “mining for magic” omnipresent mystery nullifier—has been reversed. Grrr.
The major heartache about Detect Magic is the certainty factor: 1) PCs kill baddies, 2) use magic sniffing radar on the baddies’ stuff, and 3) make off with the stuff to ID’d later.
What happened to the methods of fantasy literature? There are other ways to obtain information (some of which, ironically, are mentioned in the 5E rules): figuring the object out through trial and error use, putting a drop on the tongue if it’s a potion, putting a drop on the skin if it’s an oil, etc. And what about using abilities/skills, Investigation, research, sages, etc.? With this spell, and the increasingly powerful variants like Identify thereof, those methods mean next to nothing. All the more ironic given they wanted to make magic items less campaign prevalent and more special.
Dimension Door: Can become a standard tactic that often requires opponents be similarly able to be sufficiently challenging. Then there are parties that just use this spell to get the treasure and get out.
Disintegrate: No significant material component. Any enemy caster who fails the DEX save (maybe not their strong suit) is almost assuredly toast. Crafty enemies with this spell wait until the caster has been weakened a bit, then hit him with this. Unless he makes the save, he’s likely toast. The range is nice on this spell too. Players think this one is all kinds of fun until it happens to their character.
Divination: same problems as Commune, just on a lesser scale, and this one at least has some flavorful possibilities to lessen its deleterious effects.
Dominate spells: See Charm Person above. These are Charm on mega-steroids, with a little divination thrown in. The payoff from these spells can be significant in boosting one's own power and reducing that of enemies. With the right DC boosters (harder, admittedly, in 5E), this spell is high enough to Dominate some truly scary stuff, and that domination can last for hours. What’s worse from a game standpoint is the drawback that several spells have: it takes away player control. What’s worse is the fact that PCs can be dominated for hours, not just taking away control (and player fun and satisfaction), but giving it to the party’s enemies. This can be occasionally fun (especially if the dominated player gets into it and rolls dice against his fellows), but mostly the irritation factor goes up rapidly.
Dream: A thematically great spell that is flawed in execution. Repeated use of this spell will lose its luster and become annoying to PCs.
Earthquake: The area is big, the action is fast, the range is long, and no significant material component is required. Some below average luck, and most of the party could be swallowed up or pinned, with a fair chance of death, even if the damage doesn’t kill them outright.
Etherealness: This wouldn’t be a big deal for a 7^th level spell, except that a caster often goes ethereal to simultaneously buff up/heal and scout, and then returns at the most favorable place and moment. It lets you avoid much detection, and the mobility can be telling—and a headache for DMs. Its campaign effect is also a big one, when the nobles and wealthy realize that this spell makes physical defenses more than a bit less useful, especially when parties get to come along. And it’s not like WotC has been unaware of the problems. In Jesse Decker’s words (Dragon 337, p. 94), “this spell is so good it feels like cheating. Float through the dungeon to the final encounter and ambush the main bad guy.” He goes on to say that DMs hate this and warns against abusing it. When you have to use something (a warning, in this case) other than a game mechanic to balance a spell, the spell is a problem. True Seeing is too short of duration (and costly) to be a ready remedy.
Find the Path: Considerably cleaned up from its earlier utterly broken version, it still supplants a mainstay of rangers and skills/decisionmaking too much. The spell can be recast if you don’t get to your destination before the spell duration ends, but that will be less of a problem because you can combine it with some mass travel method.
Faerie Fire: No super challenges, just the oddity that this 1^st level spell is an easy counter to multiple higher level and fairly powerful spells. Only the fact that only druids can cast it makes this less odd than it otherwise would be. Well I’m assuming that only druids can cast it. It’s not listed in the spell lists for either clerics or wizards, and we don’t have the druids’ spell list yet. Another whoops bit of editing from WotC. That, and they couldn’t put it in alphabetical order either, since you see they have it listed behind Find the Path.
Finger of Death: At first glance, this spell seems underpowered compared to spells like Disintegrate. After all, it’s 1 level higher than Disintegrate. It too affects only one creature, but isn’t scalable like Disintegrate. Its partial damage from making the CON save is actually or potentially less than most of the other spells. But it has no material component or focus, and there’s no cap or limit HD wise. So it’s slightly askew, but probably not significantly; it’s merely a different version of trying to do the same thing. Where the potential trouble comes is where all these type of spells have their potential problems: those with poor CON saves not only have a far greater chance of buying the farm from failing the save, but typically have lower hit points anyway, and even if they make the save, depending on how things currently look, they may still be a goner. And the fact that if one is killed by this spell, that creature rises as a zombie under the caster’s control, makes only True Resurrection, a 9^th level spell, possible to rectify things for the PC.
Fireball: One of the iconic spells can’t be any difficulty, one would think. But there are potential issues. Not just spell range and accuracy, which is admittedly pretty amazing (what modern artillery guy wouldn’t want that continual precision?), not just area of effect and how many creatures it can affect at once, not just psychological impact, etc. No, it’s the potential campaign impact of so many having this spell. Battles take on a different character, counterspelling (if a possibility) increases in intensity, and one starts to get an idea of modern warfare—infantry (warrior types), artillery (fireball casting mages), armor (mounted knights), and air cover (summoned creatures, flying mages, etc.)—that is perhaps excessive for a supposedly quasi-medieval setting. It certainly makes the standard cavalry charge a little closer to a suicide run. And if you're dealing with real people - Commoners, level 1 and 2 types, etc .–area effect spells destroy swaths of low-level combatants. You knew that. But the kicker is that the only real threat to opposing armies in D&D are big hit die things that can survive a round of spells and that have an alternate movement form or faster movement. To preserve any semblance of normality, such a spell as fireball must get devilishly difficult to do more than once a day, and that WAY isn’t the case. That its base damage was upped considerably—while it may make it more useful against powerful monsters—makes the problem degrees worse, and that it is scalable makes it even more so, and that is Overchannel-able (maximized damage) makes it a dominator and potential wiper. Without the right counters, can you say, “hey wizzie, come dominate the game”?
Fire Bolt: Nicely done wizard cantrip, requiring a to hit roll, and it goes up in power every such number of levels (4 levels the first increase, 6 levels thereafter).
Fly: Pits, chasms, canyons, mountains, lava pools, water obstacles, rough terrain, and other impediments become near-meaningless, and the adventures built around them nullified. Mobility is good, spell duration is decent, and even creatures Gargantuan size can use it. Fly is also a highly underestimated ability in the core game. It allows a party member to escape a good proportion of various threats (especially melee threats) by simply moving out of reach. It also gives a great movement rate, with apparently no maneuverability problems. It complicates combat with three dimension space. Now if the party runs into a lot of opponents that can take to the air, having Fly helps to balance it out, although things become a bit predictable after a while. If the party doesn’t run into a lot of airmobile opponents, the party gets an advantage, sometimes a telling one. One thing seems to be the case regardless: folks flying around the place changes the flavor and expectations of the campaign. How much in awe can any commoner be if they see characters performing the miracle of flight as a routine matter?
Foresight: Yes, it’s a 9^th level spell, yes 9^th level spells should be powerful, but this one is fraught with the “small challenge or no-challenge” problem. Not from the mechanics of strict benefit; they’re pretty weak. No, it’s that, for 8 hours (or more, if the caster repeats it when it ends, after he or she has rested), the caster is going to be impossible to surprise. Assuming that all this means is that opponents can’t get a surprise round (and rogues don’t get the sneak), it can get a bye, but if it means the DM has to tell the wiz exactly what’s about to happen that could negatively impact the character (this area is subject to argumentative interpretation), and generally the best way to protect himself, that’s too good. If that’s the case, you’ll also find the PCs don’t like it too well on the other end, when, after all their elaborate planning, it goes to little or naught at the last moment. WotC could have saved interpretation by saying “(see the Surprise entry in Chapter 9)”. Regardless, this spell has a little too much potential to be the standard one the wiz tosses on daily, at least before bedtime.
Freedom of Movement: Not a big one either, but irritating to those DMs who plan a lot of challenges, or who count on environment to mean something, only to see this spell thwart nearly the whole shooting match, including grapples. Heck, even being underwater is no big deal. It’s like a magic “get out of jail” (and a whole lot else) free card. For an HOUR.
Gate: First of all, one would think the diamond material component would be consumed by the spell, but the description doesn’t say that. Some DMs have serious heartburn with gates and other things happening too often in the campaign world, bringing too many powerful outsiders (and others) to the world, planar travel made too easy, etc. And that’s not even considering if the party just wants to cheese-it ambush the called creature for mega-xps and plunder.
Globes of Invulnerability: Blanket spell immunity to entire spell levels, now scalable up to the highest (9^th). Watch parties pop this one against spell using opponents who they’ll then shower with ranged attacks of every sort.
Greater Invisibility: At first glance this spell seems worthless and entirely unnecessary or inferior because it has been subsumed by the ability to cast a basic spell (Invisibility) at a higher level. But of course it allows one to attack and remain invisible, very valuable despite its short duration. More on this under the Invisibility spell entry.
Greater Restoration: Petrification, curse, ability damage, exhaustion don’t mean much with this spell. The material component cost is not significant enough for most parties either.
Harm: I’m mostly okay with the changes they’ve made to this spell, and WotC deserves credit for that, although when used in combo with other things, this one will get abused.
Heal: A big one. This spell, which has no material component, can, at just a 6^th level spell, wipe away a laundry list of afflictions. And it doesn’t matter if you’re suffering from all of those afflictions at once; this spell will do them all in one casting. It doesn’t take a long time to cast (so it can be used in the DnD video game battle system), doesn’t take a long time to work (it’s instantaneous), and requires no skill whatsoever on the part of the caster—no Medicine check, no WIS check, no nothing. Every cleric or druid can access this spell, whether the domains or flavor of the cleric/druid match it or not. It’s the miracle spell of the healing sub-school (inside Evocation). Blind? No prob. Deaf? No prob. Diseased? No prob—heck, you don’t even have to know what disease it is. And it’ll heal a slew of hit points too (although WotC didn’t stress for newbies that the stated number is the maximum—it doesn’t grant additional hps past what the character’s maximum is). And the campaign effect of so many having access to this miracle no-cost cure-all? Not addressed. Sure, you can have the deities get stingy with it, but then everyone will just run to the Healing domain deities, who probably won’t be stingy.
Hold Person: Wisdom saves stink for fighter types and rogue types, because not only are their base saves poor, but it’s unlikely they’ve put too much into WIS either. Run into a jacked up Enchantment specialist with allies, and it’s coup de grace or multi-attacks time a bit too often. The save every round helps things a bit, but often not enough or soon enough. The spell is scalable too, so it can affect more than one in the party. Drop even 1 or 2 of the party, and the odds for TPC or TPK go up considerably.
Identify: It identifies all magic properties of a single magic item (or creature), including how to activate those functions and how many charges are left. It requires a mere minute’s time, and the material component is not consumed. Mystery and special feeling about magic items can be more than a bit diminished by this spell.
Imprisonment: This would be a big spell, with some potential challenges despite its great theatrical effect, but its 1 minute casting time diminish its use a bit. However, the proper combo of conditions (including a failed save) could make for some angst.
Invisibility: Holy cow. So much has been written about the invisibility spells, an encyclopedia book could be assembled. I’ll try to distill it.
Invisibility causes so many questions and challenges for DMs and PCs alike. Situations pop up that seem to the DM and players to require interpretation, and that interpretation will affect the power of the spell(s). Remembering that the person is invisible is a challenge as well. PCs will not only talk to each other, but act like they can see each other, even when one or more is invisible. Even the DM will often not remember they can’t see each other.
Aside from its easy, standard, ho hum use in recon (where it is such a huge advantage, the DM has to get a bit contrived to have any chance of challenging it regularly), it can be used for sneak attacking, infiltration, confusion sowing, etc. You can do, even with basic invisibility (which lasts a good long time, even without recasting), lots of indirect attack things, like summoning monsters (a favorite tactic, when those become available). It’s also not hard to expend a higher slot and get the whole party invisible. And the basic spell can presumably be made permanent on objects.
Invisibility starts the counter/counter the counter/ counter the counter to the counter, cycle. Invisibility also brings up all sorts of questions, even when they are “definitively” answered: Does light bend, is it really transparent, can you read scrolls while invisible, etc.
Lesser Restoration: Remove Blindness/Deafness/Paralysis/Poison/Disease. No material component. Big campaign impact from blindness, deafness, disease, etc. not nearly as prevalent. You don’t have to know the disease or poison or diagnose in any way. Diseases in the campaign become ho-hum affairs for the PCs (and many other folks) very quickly. A little sick? Go to the cleric-doctor and get well. Party impact of the above supposedly awesome afflictions is next to nil when the party cleric reaches the very high level of…well, 3^rd.
Light: Largely forget about torches or alchemical items, or the like. The spell also makes sure the flavor is taken away from the setting by making this so ubiquitous.
Lightning Bolt: Unless the party needs to isolate a target, or it has fire resistance, fireball makes this mostly irrelevant.
Locate Creature: Another one of those wave your arms and chant and know where the creature is, no matter how hidden (except by some magic or by the DM-adjudicated definition of “running water”). Even though it has, compared to other spells like this, a short range, there are DMs that hate this near-certainty: Use spell, go get tied-up princess. To think that most creatures, every time, are going to have magic defenses or be near running water, strains plausibility.
Magic Missile: Another long-discussed topic. The spell of choice if one is fighting some high dex, high AC or the like opponent, for instance, and probably in a lot of other instances as well. Magic Missile requires no attack roll and allows no saving throw. It can become too routine, and too automatic. The high level caster fills the opponent with as many as 11 unerring MMs, mostly regardless of how otherwise awesome the armor class or situation of the opponent is. Robin Hood and Odysseus, or even Gandalf, couldn't dream to do so well.

Magic Missile as written has no such possibility of going awry in any way. No matter how wild the melee, nor how great the cover (except total cover), the spell hits, with no chance of ever endangering your fellows.
The usual counteremedies—Shield spell, spell resistance, spell immunity, Silence spell, counterspell, targeting the caster, engaging the caster, etc.—are either 1) TOO effective (Shield spell), 2) complicated or as yet unavailable, or 3) seem boringly repetitive, especially against a well-organized party. What's worse, parties with enemy arcane casters often do the same mechanical, boringly repetitive, or complicated things against the party.
And many of the supportive arguments about magic missile that bring up the Shield spell, spell immunity, counterspell, anti-magic, Silence spell, spell resistance, etc.—well, most or all of these imply a spellcasting opponent, usually an arcane-capable one. If you're a monster without that capability, you’d better be WAY buff, because with few to no defenses against MM (AC meaningless and no saving throw), all it takes is the party tanks to hold you at bay, fighting defensively if necessary, while the friendly neighborhood arcane user magic missile machine pumps unerring, can't-hit-friends, magic missiles into you until you fall over dead.
If the arcanist maximizes those spells, well, scores of can't miss/can't save against/can't fumble/can't hit your buddies hit point damage borders on awesome. A rogue with UMD and a wand or bunch of scrolls could be doing much of the same thing too.
Since so many "monsters" or non-caster NPCs lack these defensive measures, Magic Missile from casters (of the 9+ level particularly) is often predictably deadly, essentially a series of (1st level!) death spells with no saving throws. Especially when the casters are protected by the party tanks and/or hitting from a distance if able (120 feet), the monsters/NPCs start to look like those Iraqi targets that got mowed down or blown apart in the Gulf Wars. And unlike fireball and other spells, you can cast magic missile into almost any wild melee and not worry about hitting your fellows. Overchannel it for best flavor (maximized damage).
MM is BOTH unerringly and individually precise, AND allows no saving throw. The party tanks and the rogue could be doing all sorts of acrobatics, feints, quick moves, or even almost totally blocking the view, but the MM miraculously hits the opponent, and the opponent, unless magically protected (see above) gets no save for even half. It is a legacy spell that 4E ran back to quickly due to expectation. It should be renamed “Magical Infliction” to at least be consistent.

Major Image: Casting it at a higher level makes it permanent. No cost. The world could be awash in permanent illusions.
Mass Cure, Mass Heal, Mass Healing Word: Fights get longer now, as this is much more than a few selectively targeted Healing Words and Second Winds from 4E. But things get way more dependent on the cleric, leading to the cleric getting targeted first for taking out by enemies (maybe even before the wizard). Aren’t gamers going to love playing clerics even more! Either that, or things get artificially dumbed down by DMs.
Maze: No save is the big thing about this one. It seems harmless to be sent somewhere for up to 10 minutes (actually, unless you’ve been hit by something that lowers—even temporarily—your intelligence, the law of probability says you’ll get out long before the 10 minutes is up). The rough part for some folks about this is that it could be your star caster or whatever, and then the opposition gets to wipe the floor with you while he or she’s gone. Or worse, they wipe the floor and then are ready when he pops back in, and proceed to wipe him. This is the classic separate and defeat piecemeal strategy, and this spell allows little recourse to it. This spell takes people out of the fight for a good while, effectively reducing the fun factor for the affected player(s). This of course is a challenge with more than just a few of the “problem” spells.
Meteor Swarm: This will catch the whole party, and great swaths of armies, if applicable. Its properties are such that any wizard (unless warned in advance to have some sort of fire resistance/Bludgeon DR up) who blows their save is almost certainly toast, and a bit of higher than average damage dice against other characters can get them roached as well. And the range? Wow.
Passwall: Also known as the Castle Breaker, because castles make a whole lot less sense with it. And confinement? Not for a mage! “Trapped? Walled off? Airtight jail? Thick fortress? No such thing my friend. Here, let me show you. And if you need a shortcut from one side of the cave/dungeon/whatever, here it is. Mr. DM-person, why is your face all twisted up like that?”
Power Words: No saving throws. PCs hate no saving throws; their characters don’t have the slightest chance of affecting the outcome, unless they just get lucky by reason of hit points at the time. A smart enemy is going to wear you down and then blast you, no save, when you look vulnerable.
Protection from Energy: It’s not the fact that nearly everyone gets this spell. It’s the fact that because clerics (and probably others) get this spell, and they get all the spells on their lists, that it becomes standard fare in the magic/counter-magic routine. Everyone starts to look the same. It becomes the way to make much less fearsome the main weaponry of a known enemy (for example, dragon). One way it was reined in a bit was that a caster can’t affect/protect more than one creature at a time.
Raise Dead: Prior to the party cleric reaching 9^th level: PCs spend treasure and drag their dead comrades to the temple of Fill-in-the-blank. The "incredible" power spell of Raise Dead is cast, and the comrade (after some cures by the party cleric) is on his way with his buds to go down to the tavern. Sure, he and the party are out a small bit of coin in the form of a diamond, and he himself is less effective for a few days, but it beats rolling up a new character. After reaching 9^th level: In the dungeon hallway, the party cleric spends an hour and raises (no failure chance) the party stiff. A few cures, and the party is back on its way. It’s the Afterlife/Back to Life Express. Then there are the campaign ramifications of raise dead magic being so available. Why would the wealthy ever remain dead of anything but old age (assuming both they and their loved ones want them to return)? They might not be able to buy their way into heaven, but they could sure buy themselves out of it (or wherever they ended up). How are you as the DM supposed to make foiling an assassination plot (what new players often love to oppose) a central thread if the party members know that they or others can simply raise the king from the dead if the assassination plot succeeds?
The very presence of Raise Dead and spells like it is because they are necessary given the assumptions of the system. That is, these spells are necessary to offset not just the high lethality of general adventuring, but the presence of the "save-or-die" line of spells, as well as things like vorpal swords, etc. And, a metagame influence, PCs need an “out” to redress or mitigate those inevitable bouts of bad luck that would otherwise require replacing a long-crafted and nearly-beloved character. All this spirals, in a vicious circle.
Consistency becomes a problem too, as a powerful, high-level cleric will most likely be brought back to life by his church to foil the PCs’ plans again someday, and other powerful NPCs will sometimes have connections that will warrant their return from the dead.
Regardless, the awe of coming back from the dead is cheapened to the point of video game restart. It’s a raise dead or resurrection machine effect. Changing raise dead from a simple "insert coin to continue" spell, to needing a favor from a god, which has to be repaid, would not be enough, but would be a step in the right direction.
Regenerate: Loss of limbs, etc. becomes much less fearful with this spell (hardly at all with a high enough cleric in the party). The spell has no material component cost—fairly significant campaign impact. It can be argued that in most cases, barring vorpal swords and optional crit tables, there is no game possibility of losing a limb, and so that means this spell is not significant, but the campaign effect cannot be discounted, as armless and legless beggars and so forth will be a good deal less prevalent, missing eyes won’t be, etc. Party members down a few hit points will have this thrown on them prior to battle, and then they will get the little bump every round that may keep them alive (but which is a bookkeeping pain).
Remove Curse: Another ubiquitous low level solution to a supposedly awesome affliction. No material component. Don’t even have to know the curse. To end some affliction, a character simply goes to the corner church to whosawhatsit, chooses Remove Curse from the a la carte menu above the altar, and pays her gold pieces. Not challenging, not engaging, and easily boring. Once they hit 5^th level, the players will be yawning even before your villain finishes saying “I curse thee with the evil seed of Moranth,” because the party cleric will have removed it in the next 6 seconds.
What's more problematic is that afflictions tend to lose all impact after a while. "I was cursed into only being able to speak in a frog’s croak for half a minute." "Yeah, and Fred the party cleric broke the enchantment and you got on with business. What's the big deal?" [Player, out of game and getting bored: "Hey, did you see that combo set up on level 9 of Final Fantasy 238? Let's blow all this and go play."] Or worse, everyone laughs the first time or two it happens, then it becomes blasé.
Resurrection: See problems with Raise Dead above.
Silence: Just cast on an object or point near the caster, or even cast it on an object and have someone throw it—the caster you’re trying to neutralize doesn’t get a save. Also, this is a great readied pre-emptive strike spell on a caster about to cast on you. Since most spells have a verbal component, it’s a caster neutralizer in many cases, especially if the caster is unable to leave the area (like many confined spaces underground that battles take place in).
Sleep: A become helpless spell. A single low level character or two on watch? Hit them with this (no save). Then have your monsters go critical hit all the unconscious characters. If your monsters outnumber the characters, it’s goodbye party.
Speak with Dead: Considerably toned down in effect, it still allows post-corpse intell gathering that would make Hercule Poirot envious. This spell has the potential to ruin many "whodunnit" murder mysteries, and it can also blow the cover of even the most intricately wound plot line in the blink of an eye. It is possible to circumvent it, and even use it against the PCs (by feeding them misinformation through legitimate gameplay), but the DM must be aware of this spell's effects and plan ahead for it, a pretty big chore for new DMs (and even veterans ones can get tripped up). I’m hoping that future product releases (perhaps the DMG) or supplements give some examples of how to use/adjudicate well. Even a harkening to cinematic, comic book, or book fiction might help.
Spider Climb: DMs get tired of SOP climbing walls and ceilings to avoid possible traps and to get away from the baddies or to attack the baddies from above, to sneak into everything, and so on. Some PCs hang by one hand and do multiple things to further irk the DM. Climb checks become a thing of the past largely, and all the built-in obstacles therein. The spell can make standard defensive obstacles nearly worthless. It’s another example of forcing the DM into a headache of trying to conceive of too much.
Spiritual Weapon: This spell becomes especially bad if there are multiple clerics in the party. It's a Force effect (so it affects incorporeal critters), it can't be destroyed by physical attacks (meaning non-spellcasters just have to suck it up), and it doesn't have to move to get multiple attacks on its current target. Multiple clerics casting these before facing a major threat and siccing them on that enemy all at once and doing damage without getting in the way of the other PCs is a DM headache.
Teleport: Well, at least it’s 7^th level now, not 5^th, but since the caster can take the whole party right off, it’s not helping much. The ability to escape—hundreds of miles—easily and nearly untrackably, as a party, is significant; no Gandalf trapped in a tower a half mile high for them. Sure, you can be off target (the newer familiarity rules help some, just not enough), and take some usually insignificant damage, but as there is no material component, you can keep casting this until you get it right. Then there are the campaign ramifications of this kind of transportation and communication.
These type of spells let you adventure and easily retreat for healing and recovery. You clock in at the start of the day and then go home at the end of the day. This spell even lets your party get to a place where diamonds are to obtain one or more of these valuable components.
These spells, when they become available, vastly alter the landscape of your campaign world. The teleporting goon squad method of dealing with enemies becomes a real issue, and rampant theft/assassination becomes a real problem. Travel becomes no object, and encounters between home and target become nonexistent. The encounters that are supposed to give PCs the items, xps, info, along the way are shortcircuited, which can cause balance problems if PCs arrive at the BBEG without already being the beneficiaries of these encounters. Mages also get over-accentuated, because the parties don’t get in enough scrapes to wear down their spell power, so they have a lot (overpowering usually) when they do get in an encounter, and the bypass feature already discussed deprives other classes of their moment to shine.
The problem is that anybody not constrained to live in a fortress (assuming magical protections) is susceptible to these things, and fortresses are very susceptible to siege/destruction in the D&D world due to the presence of magic. Add permanent teleportation circles, and you have even more serious campaign ramifications, in addition to the all the rest. Over time, enemies could infiltrate armies.
What’s often times worse for the PCs (as it is for many of these situations) is that if they can do it, so can their enemies. They, the wealthy PCs, become targets of their wealth/magic hungry (and maybe evil) counterparts, not to mention shifty rogues that try to infiltrate and get their stuff, an unnoticeable piece at a time. Yet, the players will cry foul, will feel picked on, etc. and bad blood can develop around the gaming table.
Time Stop: Requires no material component. Lets you buff up and cast duration area spells, summon allies, etc. while the other side can do nada. One can always “get out of Dodge” (well, 1000 feet away) too.
True Resurrection: See Raise Dead. This spell makes characters death proof.
True Seeing: What can an Illusionist do against this spell? It offers guaranteed protection against all illusions, regardless of level, spell level, caster power, etc. Add to that the fact that many Epic monsters have large, angry ranges on their True Seeing and the Illusionist-themed arcanist is nigh-to-useless at higher levels. An opposed check of some sort would have helped the illusionist from feeling put upon.
Wall of Stone: Groups can make this a mode of operation standard. Wiz segments the battlefield (controlling the terrain), walling off some enemies so the party can divide and conquer. He then drops it when the party has dealt with the others. WotC added a dexterity saving throw to help address this problem. But this spell can be made permanent pretty easily. Casters will be paid scads of money to put snail-pace-in-comparison-stone-masons into the poorhouse.
CLOSING COMMENTS
Thanks goes to WotC for at least presenting a well done enough system that is easy for me to correct where I feel it necessary. And I’m hoping that many of the concerns above and below turn out to not be as heavy in actual extensive 5E play.
The magic/counter/counter-to-the-counter spiral (“the arms race”) is not really fun for most DMs. Character power progression gets so out of control so quickly as magic using characters advance and non-magic users get access to more and better magical items. It turns into an arms race with the DM on one side and the Players on the other. That is:
Players power up
DM powers up to meet player threat
Players power up to meet increased DM threat
and so on

or

DM plays tough
Players power up to survive
DM powers up to keep the game tough
It becomes almost like a predictable chess match of spell, followed by spell antidote, or dispel, or counterspell, etc. Or, each “side” goes to all this trouble, and have merely complicated things and wasted their time, with no net effect (other than player and DM dissatisfaction). The “cast/counter” spiral works against playing groups who come to the table to get away from head-hurting, onerous complexity (that they often get well enough of in real life), and want to instead have immersive, plausible (note, not necessarily “realistic”), ready fun.
At other times, it becomes a case where a character or characters “must” have a certain type of magic item (and the characters start to look the same) by a certain level, or that particular character is toast in the combat environment of a CR standard DnD campaign.
At still other times, spells become gotchas for the DM and players. Just do the bit of maneuvering, finagling, etc. and the spell will work in munchkin (semi-broke) fashion. And often with complaints from either the players and/or the DM. And the problems of DM adjudication get magnified. Comparing it to fantasy novels or movies, the novels would be 5 pages long and the movies 5 minutes long. Magic would solve most or all of the dilemmas.
Sometimes the “antidotes” to “problem” spells can be used successfully enough to mitigate (at least partially) the difficulties inherent in those spells. But oftentimes this requires an intricate level of understanding of how everything fits together, as well as an intricate understanding of each spell. Many DMs and players will not have the time or ability for this, and will encounter frustration and even soured reactions. If they do not persevere, DnD has lost more enthusiasts, a difficulty regrettable enough in an age when many things compete for entertainment; the long-term effect on the hobby is not enhanced when this happens.
While one can encourage new DMs to use published adventures (hard enough to run), many will still prefer to "roll their own", which inevitably involves them having to nerf specific abilities that characters may use to circumvent their fragile plots, and ends with them turning away from DMing. More regretful results.
Many standard replies to the above consist of pointing out the built-in benefits of casters having to burn spells to do so, or that it is actually good that the players and DM don’t have to worry about those headaches that the spell(s) “solve.” That may be so, but one of the other points about all this has been that considerations are often larger than either of those things. When time is no object, spellcasters will burn through—over days if necessary—whatever spells are required to get what they want. And by the present system, they can. Artificially assuming that time will always be pressing is not plausible. A similar difficulty occurs when only a caster or two is assumed. In a typical campaign world, there would be more than a few situations when the number of casters would be no object (in fact, given magic’s predictability, and response to study and teaching, a case could be made that magic use will ever increase). In either of these cases, spell usage (and even spell coverage) may be no object at all. In those cases then, standard restrictions and balance break down. Ubiquitous magic will have absolutely altered expectations and events across the campaign in ways we perhaps still do not appreciate fully; many replies to all the things stated here mention only PC interactions and why it “wouldn’t be a problem for encounters that PCs will have at that level.” This has the effect of tossing out plausibility and focusing in isolation on the PCs, but smarter PCs are eventually going to question the world effects or even try to affect the game-world. And this does not even take into account the game assumption that creatures will be able to buy or make many magic items (in fact, many groups sell their “rare” magic items so they can have the loot to make the items that will be most useful); this will only greatly complicate things further, as these items are usually perpetual (and not dispellable). Heck, even the need to make prep and reserve scrolls (especially at high level) can make the game seem like a carry-bag exercise. FR, the traditional setting, has assumed you can buy any magic item or spell under X gp value in any particular population center. This implies far too strongly that magic is common, since gp wealth directly transposes to magic wealth. In fact, there being a predefined wealth vs. level standard reinforces this even further. If magic is so available, then it must be common, and if it's so common, how come the public Teleport shrines aren't built yet? And yet, magic is supposed to be rare and miraculous. It's a tough sell sometimes.
The game seems better served for the majority if high magic worlds are exotic, fun places to VISIT (and visit during epic play, usually). As for established settings, Eberron works—if you don’t press on it too hard. FR works too, but only if one accepts the disruption—often severe, and often to accommodate a new edition—that happens every few years, and that strains credulity as much as some comic book lines. Of course, maybe the playing group is so casual that no questioning comes up. But it’s just as likely, perhaps more, that one will hear—from the intelligent population that is drawn to PnP RPGs—“wait, why would there be…” or “wait, why wouldn’t there be…” And then internal consistency starts to dissolve, to the point of either “that’s stupid,” or “it’s just Final Fantasy-like, with some minor differences; I mean, I can’t take it seriously.” With the new WotC emphasis on background/campaign setting immersion, that would seem to be the opposite of what they say they are striving for and emphasizing, but not addressing the base problems is only going to bring that up from the intelligent people who are drawn to RPGs. To believe otherwise would insinuate that WotC has no faith in the immersive desires and capabilities of its target audience!
The D&D game is built such that, if you aren't up to date on all the newest errata, newest spells, and newest supplements that your DM allows or players want, and have complete knowledge of what each and every spell effect can do, you are at a disadvantage as a player or your plots and game-setting viability are at risk as a DM. As a DM, trying to keep track of cause and effect, let alone think through all the ramifications, is draining and sometimes overwhelming.
If the system assumes more proficiency on the average end-user(s) than is perhaps warranted, there is likely a larger challenge not being considered. "Elite" DMs can get over almost hurdle. Our society already makes too many presumptions of elevated proficiency however; it would be great if DnD did not, so that fewer novice or even "average" DMs and players would get discouraged. The entertainment playbox is overflowing; it behooves us all to see DnD prosper as best it can so that it doesn't eventually get crowded out or ignored by too many.
There seem to be far more inadequate, and in some cases, downright poor, DMs out there, even those with years of experience, than good DMs. One could go so far as to say that D&D has been sufficiently played, tested and worked over that a good DM could make a good game of any published module. It would also suggest that such DMs number as little as 10% of all those who attempt it; the rest are too “average” (or worse) to pull it off to the “good” level. The game and we should do all we can to increase that number past 10%. We have all played with DMs who have gamed for decades who we will avoid at local or regional conventions because we cannot stand their heavy handed "rule by fiat" style with which they make up for their lack of imagination. These guys drive away new gamers by the table load. They can only continue to exist because it is so hard for new blood to take up the heavy DM mantle that some people will put up with them. The learning curve needs to be smoothed out a little. This entire treatise, and the debates that spawned it, will not be read by the average DM, and in general most if not all DMs are mostly unprepared for dealing with magic after 4th (and sometimes earlier) level spells. At some point, you need to build the tool to the way it's going to be used, not some theoretical ideal that is almost never going to happen. If the product is too difficult for its target market, then the game is broken, not the target. If one wants RPGs to come to renewed prominence as a game form, this needs to be addressed. Too many DMs (and sometimes players with them) give up the game in frustration. While doubling the audience would not change the cultural landscape very much, it might make for a better product, and a better living for those that make the product.
Not every spellcaster player is particularly imaginative; some of the biggest trouble children spells may never be used to the fullest in many campaigns. Yet it does not hold therefore that the game is well designed just because no one drives a truck through a gaping hole. If one plays in games where the spell caster, having had his fun exploiting the system, has intentionally withheld his character from the problem spells in order to more enjoy interaction with other players, this too is not a demonstration of a good game system. “Social” solutions can work, where a playing group agrees to certain boundaries or restrictions, but a good game system should minimize that necessity even if it can’t eliminate it, and certainly should minimize its required degree of emphasis. Just assuming that a group can go find a DM to run the way they want to play is not borne out by events—too many players and would be players go without the PnP RPG experience because there’s no DM (or suitable DM). That’s not good for the hobby, of course, but it touches on another issue: the difficulty in DMing—everything from the time required, to expense, to dedication, to acquiring proficiency, to aptitude, etc.
It is somewhat unreasonable to presume that because the information is somehow somewhere in the DMG and PHB that a reader will be able to fully extrapolate the nature of the world that these core rules envisage at the outset. That would suppose taking what are effectively the raw inputs for a very complex simulation, and "knowing" the results immediately. Many of us have been at this for years, and there is still no clear consensus on exactly what kind of world should result from the "default" setting, although FR is the current decision. Secondly, no one is arguing that D&D is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is a wolf in wolf's clothing. But it does present a different game at low levels compared to the one which emerges at higher levels; of this there is general consensus. Perhaps it starts out as a wolf cub and becomes a dire wolf!
And this assumes one actually reads everything carefully once (let alone a few times) before playing. This rarely happens. It especially does not happen when it comes to reading every spell in just what will be the PHB. Even experienced DMs often have to look up (or reread) a spell that is being cast by a player, some of them after having read the books several times over. The volume of information is that heavy. Missing even one piece could leave a DM loopholed (and frustrated) severely.
The rules do not adequately prepare one for higher levels. There has been no short readable section in the DMG that adequately prepares a DM for the game as it transitions into higher levels. It can be viewed as misleading to show the game as having a smooth character level progression to 20 levels. Even releasing a handbook for higher (mythic) levels, without clearer warning that the character of the game will change substantially, or that the fine balance that has been achieved at earlier levels may become increasingly unstable, requiring more and more DM adjudication or even rules changing, can be misleading. It appears to be an issue even to the industry's many module writers, with many modules for higher levels being inadequately prepared for actual high level characters, who can divine, teleport, maze, loot, teleport, and repeat as necessary. And it’s probable the designers didn’t do this intentionally. They had many legacy issues to deal with. They may have play tested it to their best ability. They may have honestly felt that the mechanics scale well, and that all the spells so far do a great job of balance.
Most players of the game approach it from just that angle, players, rather than trying to see it from a designer's view. Most typical gamers never make that step, even though they may toy with the rules to suit their tastes as players. The fact that many are comfortable with the designer's perspective doesn't necessarily translate to the gaming public at large. The problem is severe enough from the DM angle. If players cannot empathize (even a little) with the designers’ view, let alone the DM’s view, there will be additional trouble. The game doesn’t help here that it has until now (Mearls’ columns often the exception) been light on overview, explanations, and caveats.
Sure, a good DM can correct things when he or she encounters a problem. However, some of the corrections will have game-world breaking consequences, or at least adventure breaking, even (or especially) for published settings. This is bound to have some negative impact on the DM's desire to venture into higher levels with his players. Could this not be one of the reasons for the start, crash and repeat nature of so many "long term" campaigns? It could even be that supplementary product sales are so good as a consequence of this behavior: players will satisfy themselves that they have to create new characters because every time they do, there are so many cool new options for them to take.
The game design gives the unstated opinion that the game is very clear from the outset, via its written rules (those that the novice, or even reasonably experienced DM should be expected to read), that high level spells and items will require careful, case by case study, and equally careful implementation of measures/countermeasures in order for the game to be other than a very brief and unsatisfying sortie, or a total party knockout (in contrast to the relatively straightforward low level game).
Another (but probably not last) pitfall to watch for is what could be termed spellcaster spotlight. By higher levels, the spellcaster can, with magic, do many (and often most) of the roles of other characters, and what’s more, can often do them better. One category of character (magic user) can do everything that all the other classes can do given a large enough spell library. This has the effect of making the game deadly dull for the other players, the DM, and, eventually, the spellcaster himself. In fact, most (all?) game skills and abilities can be evaded or neutralized in some way by magic. What’s worse, in combat encounters, the job of the other PCs becomes to protect the big caster. Period. Multiple attacks with greatswords and greataxes, or sneak attacks with advantage, are powerful, but will be hard pressed to measure up to multiple Fireballs and Power Words or Meteor Swarm in tandem, especially if Overchanneled (maximized damage). And this is without scrolls, wands, and other magic items considered in the mix. But kudos to WotC for limiting the slots available for 8^th and 9^th level spells, as this will dampen this problem somewhat.
High level play can too easily become an abstract exercise in DBZ-style campiness, with about the same amount of plausibility. But high level in general is problematic. Luck or even having ability X to combat ability Y can have a huge bearing on how a combat turns out. For instance, the right power word at the right time can take out a dragon that would otherwise be beyond defeat. Or a 20th level mage can get caught out in an antimagic field or snared by a silenced grappler master and then it’s curtains despite a near 10 level disparity in levels. The sheer amount of permutations and combinations of abilities and tactics available at higher levels can make things very unstable. Many proficient players will “run amok” just to show they can, and do ludicrous things just for laughs, to show they can. The game has at that point become unbelievable to them, let alone a challenge. Unfortunately, too many spells accentuate, rather than reduce, this problem.
Many commentators point to the illogic of so many high level casters, given the capabilities and lethality demonstrated. This is where high level games often break down. For instance, if the NPCs get proactive and plan elaborate counter strikes (much like PCs do to them), targeting times when the PCs are resting or are wounded, then the game will be over quick. It then becomes necessary to avoid logical conclusions for the game to work, or, instead, for the DM to spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to come up with—however implausible—reasons why it might work. Regardless, no real equilibrium point is foreseeable, which means either unsustainable crazy paranoia, or illogic in the extreme. Maybe high level individuals do go crazy, and that solves the problem. No high levels, just the crazy and the dead.

CORRECTIVES
Suggesting adjustments is outside the scope of this treatise, for it would make what is already a too lengthy treatment prohibitively so. One thought set must be expressed, however:
Of course, I don’t expect the game designers to devise around everything, but they also shouldn’t fail to address in some fashion known challenge areas. People playing the game like powerful magic that does things they can’t in the “real” world. Using that magic in routine and predictably repeatable fashion, however, brings up all (and more) of the problems I outlined. Using some method to make plausible why use WOULDN’T be routine would go a fair ways toward helping things. Whether it’s by insanity accumulation, or physical degeneration, or even the methods used by White Wolf, or some other methods entirely—having the “cool” spells that are also problematic become rarer in use will not only help immersion, plausibility, and long-term aspects of a setting, but it will help the playing experience by keeping those magics special and a bit more wondrous, rather than techno-equivalent routine.

VERDICT?
Is 5E a hit, and if so, what kind of one? Yes, it’s a hit. Solidly connected with the ball. In fact, drove it deep into the outfield corner. Stumbled a little rounding the bases, and didn’t step them precisely on, but good head of steam anyway. Rounding third, can possibly try for an inside the park homer. Will it make it?
Really good chance. Next six months will tell!

 

[Li Shenron]

At first sight, sounds like a more general criticism to fantasy RPGs.

 

[Juriel]

Sounds accurate.

It's not as bad as 3e, but magic will mess you (and your campaign) up.

We'll see if most campaigns still end up dying out around lv10, because it's not as ubiquitous by then yet.

Hopefully the DMG will handle this topic, because at least it'd show they've considered the issue.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Sounds accurate.

It's not as bad as 3e, but magic will mess you (and your campaign) up.

We'll see if most campaigns still end up dying out around lv10, because it's not as ubiquitous by then yet.

Hopefully the DMG will handle this topic, because at least it'd show they've considered the issue.

I disagree with the OP that save or die is bad. It is good to have a mechanic that bypasses hp, else damage is the only option, which is predictably boring. I agree zbout raise dead. There should just be revivify, and it should be 7th level, no raise dead or ressurection.

 

[Pallidore]

Parts 1 and 2 critiqued in another thread

Parts 1 and 2 I critiqued in another thread.

 

[Bumamgar]

This mega treatise has nothing to do with 5e and is merely a rant about 'high magic' vs 'low magic' or DnD in general. Too long, filled with a variety of grammatical errors, and more if a rambling rant / op-ed than any sort of a review or even constructive critique (since the poster doesn't deign to offer any suggestions for improvement).

 

[Pallidore]

This mega treatise has nothing to do with 5e and is merely a rant about 'high magic' vs 'low magic' or DnD in general. Too long, filled with a variety of grammatical errors, and more if a rambling rant / op-ed than any sort of a review or even constructive critique (since the poster doesn't deign to er any suggestions for improvement).

I not only look in depth at many spells, but discuss Concentration, slots, rituals, Overchanneling, etc.

Can you point out the grammatical errors? Might have happened in reposting, but thought I caught most of the ones in the file.

I said it was long. And explained that's why it didn't include more suggestions other than the one at the end. I can offer some, but wanted to wait until all initial products are released and have played through them.

 

[jrowland]

TL;DR: D&D isn't a great game for simulation, but it's a great game for gaming.



Here's a new magic Item for lolz

+1 Soapbox of Ranting: This cursed item gives the user the ability to stand prominently in a public place and proclaim anything they desire. However, it is cursed to cause the user to rant causing passerby's to ignore, argue, cheer, or heckle the user. This passerby feedback causes more ranting, creating an endless cycle. If the number of ignoring and heckling passerby's exceed the number of arguing or cheering passerby's, the user can can make a saving throw versus will to resist the rant.

/Soapboxquit