DungeonMaester said:
My stance is, dont play a cahracter if you dont 'fit the bill' (which is to say, dont play a Wizard if you dont want to play a know-it-all mythodical, aloof, uppity and mostly..old character. If you dont want to go around in a rage swinging a weapon, killing everything around then dont play a barbarian. Ect, ect) I think the problem stems from pop culture myself. People who see anime think they can go play a Ninja in 3.5 like they see in the show, be able to teleport around and dissapear as many times as they like, and shoot energy bolts at will, which is what I see the game turning into. (not to pick on anime, same goes for movies and books too.)
I offer this solution: Instead of trying to dismantle the magic system in the game, make new type of spell casters like warlocks.
Thank you. You just saved me the typing to say much the same thing.
Spell-refresh any more often than once a day is going to raise some serious balance problems, and this is being said by one to whom balance isn't everything. If they can refresh after every time something relevant happens...OK, let's take a recent example from my game:
Party is in mountains in winter, not quite sure where they're going; area is known to be very dangerous so party have taken some precautions (all invisible, a few pre-cast buffs, etc.). The following all happens in the same day (as fate would have it, the "encounters" are nicely separated):
First encounter is with an Earth Dragon (this is 1e, so not the same headache it'd be in 3e), party takes a bit of damage - nothing serious - and dragon is gone.
Second encounter is with a couple of rather tough wandering Frost Giants; party takes some more damage and some spells get used, giants gone.
Third encounter is with a magically guarded entrance to the underdark; someone walks through, a Demon gets summoned, party has to deal with Demon.
Fourth "encounter" amounts to a few glyphs and tricks in the passage, no big deal but it takes some spells to deal with.
Fifth encounter is some bigass piercers in a cavern, along with a few Drow guarding another passage. Party is hurting all round after this, and packs it in for the day (retreat to surface).
Now...if the casters had been able to reload after each encounter they'd have unlimited cures (in effect) and repeat access to all the spells they'd just used up...those 5 encounters would not have drained the party's renewable resources
at all, and they'd be able to carry on and, with care, do the entire adventure in one go, re-invisibling and re-buffing each time. Ridiculous! (as it turned out, it took them 2 more tries to take and hold that cavern...)
Now, if you want to pander to instant gratification and set things up so the party never have to rest or be patient in an adventure, go right ahead...but at someone else's table, please.
Lanefan