Maybe you avoid putting spellcasters in your game, but in every game I've ever run or played in, they were commonly encountered.
My personal game isn't significant here, but neither is yours, see below for actual stats, even when you tried to use the one publication in which there are the most spellcasters, you did not go above 3% of encounters affected. THREE PERCENT, and that's with me being generous, allowing you to count the mind flayer (which has already his mind blast as a specific trait) and grossly underestimating the number of encounters in the book.
THREE PERCENT, and with you choosing which adventure book to use...
If by "don't even usually have spellcasting" you mean all of them do, then you would be correct!!
No, it's not "spellcasting", it's "innate spellcasting", which is not the same thing. And you did not count the fact that all of them have powerful attacks and other traits which, once more, make the
potential translation of SOME damaging spells as attacks once more insignificant. And finally, to put the final nail in the coffin, because of this, those I have checked DO NOT EVEN HAVE DAMAGING SPELLS in their list. So they would not even be affected by the new statblock !
To prove this, I have taken the first few of your list and checked, Baphomet has no damaging spell. Neither does Demogorgon. Their spellcasting is actually almost an insignificant attribute compared to the rest of the statblock. As for Bael, yes, he has Wall of Fire, oh my god, I'm sure that they will take an effort to put this in a specific trait to compare to all of his attacks and legendary actions. Ah yes, he also has Symbol, but it's not damaging and actually much more powerful than a pitiful Wall of Fire. And you know what, his teleport is already a trait and therefore not counterspellable.
Come on, once more this makes the
potential changes totally insignificant compared to very rare abilities of very, very few PCs...
That was not said. It was just said that the big spells would be abilities, not that all of them were damaging spells. The spells that make them the CR that they are supposed to be will be actions now.
And once, more, I judge on facts in the books ONLY damaging spells have made the cut, because damage is the factor used for CR computation.
Sorry, my bad. Cleansing Touch was the second one. Can't remove a spell effect if it ain't a spell any longer.
I had taken care of that one, since only damaging spells which are usually instant have been affected by the change so far (and not spells which are actually far more dangerous like Maze, Polymorph, even Wish) , it's like Dispel Magic, the change has absolutely zero effect on play.
So you are still at a count of ONE not totally insignificant effect so far, counterspell, which is, in itself, more than minor. So "many" indeed...
sigh
Dungeon of the Mad Mage
1. Halaster
2. Trenzia
3. Midna
4. Rizzeryl
5. Marta
6. Ilnor Telenna
7. T'rissa Auvryndar
8. Barlgura
9. Barlgura #2
10. Drider Spellcaster
11. Mind Flayer
12. Preeta
Fantastic (and counting the mind flayer is fair exactly how, since their attack abilities are already in other traits ? And the Barlgura - twice - again has no damaging spells), and out of how many encounters in the book ?
I won't count all the encounters in the book, but I have counted at least 23 in the first level, 30 in the 10th level and 15 in level 18 (so that I have a good spread). I'll be generous and make it an even 20 encounters per level (and that is really underestimating it), for 23 levels, so that is 460 encounters. And out of this, you give me 12 spellcasters affected, so that is exactly 2.6% percent of encounters affected. LESS THAN THREE PERCENT !
But feel free to count again and prove your point, I'm not worried.
This is laughable.