Regarding fingers argument - the ability is *spellcasting* not *one spell* and the fact that they all chose the ssmexdpell and are now using it to solve the same challenge does not make their festure the same. Just that they elected the same option. In fact, depending on the spells, the results may be quite different in many ways. The dorc may be empowering or even quickening for more effectiveness. The bard may be flouting his spell out and the wizards casting may be triggering secondary effects from his sub-class.
Either way, if an elven bard, a fighter and a barbarian all choose yo fire arrows from long bows across the bridge at a target, that does not mean their "combat fighting" is the same- just that they in this case choose the same tool to solve the same problem.
Now if that same problem with the same solution occurs so often that this becomes "routine" and bothersome, that speaks to the campaign, not the system.
Take detect magic... do we need a very different version of this spell for each class do thst they feel different every time they use spells to solve a " is it magical?"question? Should we cut out the grapple rules to make way for the half-dozen more detect magic versions?
Or should we decide that for some reason only one of the classes has detect magic and sipo if you want that tool in your toolbox pick the wizard and ditch the rest ? So now instead of a bard, a cleric a wizard and a sorc we have four wizards all casting the same spell cuz that was the only way to get that single-spell they thought they needed.
Neither of those to me is better than having an efficient list of spells, a lot of shared sprells for routine functional needs and then having the differences in classes being not so much st the individual spell level but from all that other stuff that makes sorcs, clerics, wizards, warlocks and bards unique.
As a GM I can narrate their effects and results very differently, as described in prior posts so that the difference shows not from numerical differences but from descriptive differences.
I have yet to have s bard tell me they feel like a wizard because charm person works the same mechanically ignoring the whole world of other differences between those classes and even their spellbook vs small number of known stuff.
Fighters with long bows get different from elven bards with longbows not by having bows just fo different things but by action surge, extra attacks, maybe battle master maneuvers.
I guess the difference is that I dont see a specific spell and how it performs as the **feature** any more than I see "longbow" as the feature for the martials. Barbarian-fighter-ranger each start with a longbow proficiency and they each have different features that can make their longbow fire different but if they all had players who chose longbow and not those features and the 14 dex cuz medium armor... that is the result of those choices, not the sign of a longbow problrm.
Similarly, if a sorc-wizard-warlock all chose firebolt, all chose a 16 stat and all chose to not choose various options they have for different changes to firebolt - it's not a knock on "firebolt" or "spellcasting".
Frankly tho, it's more likely the warlock chose EB not firebolt anyway while the others chose firebolt or maybe the sorc chose different due to his origin.
Course, for some, just a random die roll to see if you can cast firebolt means "magical so ho figure.
"This may sound like a radical idea, but I think a class based games should have... ya know... classes that do different stuff. "
And they do... they just dont do everything totally different. Warlocks-wizards-sorcs do very different things and make a lot of different choices and play a lot differently - even stemming from the diff between having 16 cha and 16 int but also bloodlines vs pact /Patron vs spellbook and school. Barbarian-fighter-ranger do different stuff even though a longbow would do the same damage if they choose it and the same options around it.
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