Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Not even with surprise. Stoneskin would outlast surprise and the 1st round, so the wizard WILL get his choice of spells off.
D&D (2024) Nerf to magic users?
Of course the real power is when you get to Contingency.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
But @ECMO3 was right though. In 1e fighters had a way better chance to interrupt spellcasters otherwise. I stand corrected.
I still think the assumption that the fighter will be able to just shoot the wizard does not hold true. The wizard could just use cover, cast their spell and then attack.
I
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Yes, they had a better chance in 1e, but after 5th level and especially 7th, if the wizard got initiative he likely won. Fly and Protection from Normal Missiles were pretty standard choices and if the fighter didn't have a magic bow, he wasn't doing much in the way of interrupting.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Those were the spells I chose for 2e, too.
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Two things assuming we are talking about 1E.
Stoneskin stops one attack or attack sequence only. It is not clear what exactly "attack sequence" meant in melee either as if characters got more than 1 melee attack a round (and at 7th level they did) it would be broken into two parts which happen at different times in combat.
Second you have to get stoneskin without that casting getting interupted.
So if you cast stoneskin in combat you are casting a spell hoping that you will get it off and prevent an attack that would otherwise hit.
No. this is not true. IT depends on what you are being attacked with and the casting time of the spell. I believe that Fly and PNM both have a casting time of 3 segments.
Missile weapons are always fired before spells, so regardless of initiative if the fighter is using a missile weapon the magic-user gets attacked before he gets his spell off.
If the fighter attacks him in melee and the magic-user loses initiative he always gets attacked before completing his spell.
If the fighter attacks using a melee weapon and the magic-user wins initiative a bunch of things come into play:
1. IF the fighter has more than 1 melee attack that round he makes one attack before the spell completes and one after (at 7th level a fighter with specialization would get 2 attacks every round, a fighter without specialization would get one attack the first round, a two attacks the next round, then one, then two etc).
2. If the fighter only gets 1 melee attack that round you need to subtract the fighters losing initiative from the speed factor of the weapon he is using and compare it to the casting time for the spell (in this case 3), to see if the spell went off first.
For a magic-user to get a spell off before getting attacked, the attacker had to be using melee, he has to only get one attack a round and the Magic-User has to win initiative by enough to cover the casting time-speed factor.
RAW Magic-Users sucked in 1E!
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Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
I specifically said 2e. 1e didn't have stoneskin outside of the very, very optional UA and I had 0 DMs allow UA stuff.
If the fighter was using a bow he always gets 2 shots to interupt (more if he has specialization).
Inside 210 feet he needs a 4 to hit. At max range - 630 feet, he needs a 9 to hit and he has to miss twice or the spell is foiled.
Stoneskin was core in 1E after Unearthed Arcana was publshed. I beleive the only thing that was optional in Unearthed Arcana were the Cantrips (and I am not even sure they are optional).
The term Unearthed Arcana did not mean playtest or optional back then. It was a hardcover core book like XGE or FTD is in 5E. They took a bunch of optional stuff out of Dragon Magazing and made them official by pubishing Unearthed Arcana.
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