That is exactly what I want. I want all classes to share enough of their abilities in combat that I can believe they're non-magical humanoids at heart. I don't want 'flashy' super-beings who can cast magic all day, or shoot two arrows every 6 seconds, or hit enemies over the head to make them glow with holy guiding light (that only benefits one companion) every round.
I want bless instead of priest's shield. I want bane instead of righteous brand.
I want firing two arrows in one round to be special, not something that is considered normal.
I want wizards to have their limits like they've always had in every edition of D&D going back to the beginning.
However, they are going to be doing a
lot of things that are different each time. Instead of doing the same "little" thing every round, they are using a completely different encounter power every oher turn.
And the "limits" of wizards only really existed at lower levels. Once a wizard hit a certain point, it was off to the races. This is sort of what is being proposed hear. Give the wizard a limit BUT make the fights short enough that the limit never comes up, or comes up rarely.
Doing something every round is a feat or a class feature, or a basic ability that everyone can do. Not a class specific power or spell.
Ignoring the previous editions warlock ... the ranger got their feat for free ... as a class feature. Rapid Shot/Two Weapon Fighting is basically a melee power. Since there are NO "powers" in 3.5 for martial types (until book of nine swords) there aren't going to be many cases of this. One example: Is the monks flurry of blows a class feature or a class specific power? It
is class specific. It is an attack. However it would probably qualify as being a class feature. Either way though, it was something they could constantly do, that only they could do. It was part of what made them monks.
Part of what made rangers what they were was their fighting style that either involved two weapon fighting ... which gave them extra attacks ... or archery powers ... that gave them extra attacks. Kind of like twin strike.
Magic users may not have had unlimited attacks ... they did however invest in magic items (and later reserve feats) that could make them effectively have unlimited magic. Or, more often, they would force the entire party to rest whenever they ran out. Since it was daily based, instead of encounter based, it is a lot easier to do this. If you run out of powers IN an encounter, you can't just "give up and rest". However, if you are running low on dailies, you can stop before the next encounter.
So, while in the past magic users had limits ... in many cases players would just find ways of circumventing that. Part of that involves skipping the first few levels (not just for this reason, but also things like the sweet spot, HP ammounts, access to magic items, etc). Part of it involves loading up on "cure sticks" and other useful wands to give more resources over time. As time went on, magic items started to convert from charges to uses per day, and feats were added to give at-will options for magic users (reserve feats).
And above all I want this. If you're doing something you can do every round, I don't want it to take more time to figure out than "I hit/miss, I deal damage". None of the "Fred gets a +2 against this specific creature, in this unlikely circumstance, and it only lasts for a round so I'll have to repeat myself if I do exactly the same thing next round".
Because if you are doing the same thing constantly its going to remain difficult to keep track of? How is having more encounter powers, which each do something different, and unlike daily powers rarely have long term durations that much different. The ability you use once per fight (and is 1 of at least 3, up to 6 or 7, not counting utilities or dailies, etc) is going to be easier to remember all the details than something you use multiple times during a fight.
Ignore that a number of at-wills are fire and forget as well, like twin strike, eldritch blast, magic missle, heck even some stuff like thunderwave, tide of iron, and things like that are also fire and forget. Giving people THP? Again, you right it on the sheet and voila, you just do a bit of extra damage. Give someone an immediate attack, move someone around, attack multiple targets, attack a non-AC defence, move before or after the attack, etc, etc, etc ...
Only a few involve round long effects you have to remember, and which are comparable to a number of round long effects that are class features, like the fighter's mark, or the warlock's concealment, that provide the same kind of numbers you need to track. [Unlike mod'ing STR or DEX, you don't have to recalculate one value that in turn recalculates a LOT of values ... you are told directly what 'final' value is modified instead]. If you use the power often enough, and you know what the "special condition" is, you can easily know when it isn't going to matter.
I'm not going to say there isn't a case of "remember your modifiers" at the table during the sessions ... but continuous modifiers and feat based modifiers are just as easy to forget about.
Ultimately, it would seem that if an at-will is being used say ... 3 times per fight, it's going to be easier to remember the math involved [including your encounters and dailies] than having no at-wills and more encounters. You have less to calculate for your basic attacks (except of course, their initial math is probably different than your class based abilities, and if you have powers with longer durations as you've suggested, you have to apply that math to these powers anyway). And, since you are never using the same "complex" power twice, you have to get used to more powers that recur less often.
