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<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 8013879" data-attributes="member: 12731"><p>You do realize you need to explain what you mean by being a wizard and not an evoker, right? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> (=What specific non-Evocation spells are you recommending?)</p><p></p><p>I can easily see area spells getting better as the number of players (and therefore monsters) increase.</p><p></p><p>In fact, my group is five players. However, EC is so difficult as written I seldom follow the guidelines for boosting encounter XP budgets. Meaning, I mostly run encounters as written, meaning in turn that there has not been a single RAW instance where a Fireball has been truly worthwhile so far (in 8 levels!).</p><p></p><p>What I mean by this is: the typical encounter in EC is against three monsters. But let's take four instead. Problem is, spending your round to deal ~21 damage to each of them is decidedly unimpressive (when you can only do it a very small number of times a day, not if you could do it at-will) - that simply isn't going to bring any one of them down. (Not to mention that half of them will make their save and take only half damage).</p><p></p><p>Sure, in that particular round the Wizard is dealing 60 damage (20+20+10+10) which is more than any martial. But the damage is unfocused, and not likely to make a real difference.</p><p></p><p>Making a difference is when a monster is killed sooner than otherwise. But 60 points of damage distributed semi-randomly across the four opponents is just not impressive. It's not worth walking around frail and afraid when your big moment is "slightly better than the martial's <strong>average</strong>". The party is simply better off retiring that caster and replacing him with another martial. (In our party, a Thief racket Rogue, for example).</p><p></p><p>Not when save or dies have been incapacitated, when you seldom can bypass challenges/hazards using spells anymore, and buffs and debuffs are utilitarian at best.</p><p></p><p>As I said, what remains is working together with the very effective martials (and their sole progress meter is "damage dealt"), and what remains here is area spells.</p><p></p><p>And even that only truly impresses when the GM (me) switches out two Spinesnappers for, say, two squads of six Warriors and their Leader (replacing two level 5 trogs for 14 level 1-3 trogs). Since a fireball here wipes out the Warriors almost entirely and leaves the Leader severely burnt, the Wizard is finally doing what parties throughout the history of D&D have brought them along to do: doing something no martial can do.</p><p></p><p>PS. Our Wizard chose to be an Universalist or whatever its called. That is, he is not an Evoker.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 8013879, member: 12731"] You do realize you need to explain what you mean by being a wizard and not an evoker, right? :) (=What specific non-Evocation spells are you recommending?) I can easily see area spells getting better as the number of players (and therefore monsters) increase. In fact, my group is five players. However, EC is so difficult as written I seldom follow the guidelines for boosting encounter XP budgets. Meaning, I mostly run encounters as written, meaning in turn that there has not been a single RAW instance where a Fireball has been truly worthwhile so far (in 8 levels!). What I mean by this is: the typical encounter in EC is against three monsters. But let's take four instead. Problem is, spending your round to deal ~21 damage to each of them is decidedly unimpressive (when you can only do it a very small number of times a day, not if you could do it at-will) - that simply isn't going to bring any one of them down. (Not to mention that half of them will make their save and take only half damage). Sure, in that particular round the Wizard is dealing 60 damage (20+20+10+10) which is more than any martial. But the damage is unfocused, and not likely to make a real difference. Making a difference is when a monster is killed sooner than otherwise. But 60 points of damage distributed semi-randomly across the four opponents is just not impressive. It's not worth walking around frail and afraid when your big moment is "slightly better than the martial's [B]average[/B]". The party is simply better off retiring that caster and replacing him with another martial. (In our party, a Thief racket Rogue, for example). Not when save or dies have been incapacitated, when you seldom can bypass challenges/hazards using spells anymore, and buffs and debuffs are utilitarian at best. As I said, what remains is working together with the very effective martials (and their sole progress meter is "damage dealt"), and what remains here is area spells. And even that only truly impresses when the GM (me) switches out two Spinesnappers for, say, two squads of six Warriors and their Leader (replacing two level 5 trogs for 14 level 1-3 trogs). Since a fireball here wipes out the Warriors almost entirely and leaves the Leader severely burnt, the Wizard is finally doing what parties throughout the history of D&D have brought them along to do: doing something no martial can do. PS. Our Wizard chose to be an Universalist or whatever its called. That is, he is not an Evoker. [/QUOTE]
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