Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
In two different threads recently there were comments that Cantrips make magic too common, so it doesn't feel magical. They were often accompanied by ideas to restrict the number of cantrips per rest.
The issue for me is that there are a lot more actions per day then skill slots, all the way up through 20th. Here's a breakdown I did in an earlier thread:
The baseline we have from this is that casters will be mostly not-spells until double digits, and even at 20 will still have a good chunk of actions more than spell slots.
Back in pre-cantrip editions casters needed to default to mundane solutions - wizards throwing darts, etc. Using mundane solutions also does not make casters feel magical.
The idea of a few cantrips per day doesn't work - it still leaves mundane solutions for most actions until the highest of levels.
So how do we combine the contradictory ideas that (a) at-will magic makes magic feel mundane that several people have stated, and (b) have that casters can contribute meaningfully in a magical way without having to resort to mundane actions? I don't think a direct compromise works, so what solutions orthogonal to mundane=mundane and at-will=mundane can we find?
The issue for me is that there are a lot more actions per day then skill slots, all the way up through 20th. Here's a breakdown I did in an earlier thread:
Let's assume the conservative 5 encounters of 4 rounds each. That's 20 actions to cover. Add in an extra spell per encounter - say a reaction like shield or a bonus action. That's 25.
Let's assume you cast some spells a day cast outside combat - be it utility, mage armor, foresight, what have you. When you have more slots you're more likely to do this. For a conservative number lets say proficiency - 1. So only one until 5th level, and only five all the way at 20th. Nice and low.
At 1st, you have 2 slots for 26 castings. Sounds like mostly Firebolt or your damage cantrip of choice.
At 5th we have 9 slots for 27 casting. 2/3 cantrips.
At 9th we're up to 14 slots for 28 castings - 1/2 cantrips.
At 13th it's 17 slots for 29 castings. Still over 10 Firebolts a day.
At 17th it's 19 slots for 30 castings - still haven't reduced to 1/3 of your spells cast are cantrips.
At 20th it's 22 slots for 30 castings! Only 8 Firebolts that day.
Now, at higher level you probably have some magic item activations in there as well. So if you are a 20th level caster and use wands and stuff 8 times per day, you can just avoid casting a cantrip. It's harder at the lower levels.
So it looks like there's a lot of cantrip use. The majority of casting will be cantrips until reaching 9th, and even high levels will be doing it some.
This will vary a bit by class - some have less reaction spells, or sorcerers with quicken spell will cast more cantrips on their actions.
The baseline we have from this is that casters will be mostly not-spells until double digits, and even at 20 will still have a good chunk of actions more than spell slots.
Back in pre-cantrip editions casters needed to default to mundane solutions - wizards throwing darts, etc. Using mundane solutions also does not make casters feel magical.
The idea of a few cantrips per day doesn't work - it still leaves mundane solutions for most actions until the highest of levels.
So how do we combine the contradictory ideas that (a) at-will magic makes magic feel mundane that several people have stated, and (b) have that casters can contribute meaningfully in a magical way without having to resort to mundane actions? I don't think a direct compromise works, so what solutions orthogonal to mundane=mundane and at-will=mundane can we find?