Ruin Explorer
Legend
I mean, it's not entirely subjective, and that's how 5E did such a good job. It's odd to suggest it is subjective. If it was, 5E would not have managed to balance its classes so remarkably tightly mechanically. 5E is probably the best-balanced edition of D&D after 4E, it might even be ahead of 4E, and it's so far ahead of all other editions that and indeed most other RPGs that it's nuts.It is entirely arguable, but not worth doing since what constitutes a strong class is entirely subjective. Some favor DPR, some favor flavor, some favor other things.
You seem to conflating "strong" and "class I like", which are two totally different things. Flavour doesn't ever make a class "strong". It can make it interesting, attractive, or engaging, which is different.
I literally specified "most encounters" and you're telling me I'm implying "every round". How does that work?IME it might be the opening salvo for an encounter, certainly, but hardly used even close to the "every round" you're implying.
This is what was asking about, but it doesn't make much sense, and I'm wondering if you've really thought this through, because it seems like a very half-considered idea that casting combat cantrips 20% less and leveled spells 20% more is "less mundane". And that is the sort of numbers we're discussing, based on the facts and figures you've given. I feel this may the placebo effect in action.It isn't the same amount. Those attack cantrips are being used less and leveled spells more. Using more powerful magic, and often in more meaningful ways, does not make it mundane.
(Especially given that a lot of D&D combat spells are themselves, fundamentally pretty boring and unmagical-feeling, being more like superpowers or the like. Again, we can look at Worlds Without Number for magic that feels like magic, particularly Vancian magic.)
I literally don't know what you're saying has changed for Martials here. Are you talking about changes to martials you haven't yet mentioned? Or are you implying that by casters dominating combat more (as they will, casting more leveled spells), that's somehow helping Martials, because, what the Martials can chill out and not attack, and thus do nothing, which is a good thing?! It's a bit of a headscratcher.In media you don't see martials whack-whack-whack all the time. You see them change position to get the upper hand, punch, kick, trip, shove, and all sorts of other things that in D&D because they don't deal damage are sub-optimal to attacking. FWIW, we are trying to fix this as well so martials have a more exciting and engaging game than just whack-whack-whack.
What I do understand is that you've created a situation which encourages casters to use leveled spells in combat more, and not to rest on their laurels. This must mean, however, they have fewer spells for problem-solving etc. (especially given your combats run unusually long). Which means, I guess, that Rogues are going to better than otherwise, because skills will be needed to solve more problems? But it also means casters are likely to be more dominant in combat than they are in other games. I genuinely don't get how this makes "magic less mundane", it really sounds like it makes it more mundane, because powerful combat magic is being deployed even more routinely, but perhaps we don't mean the same thing by mundane?
Why stop there? Plenty of people have entirely removed spellcasters from their games! I'd actually say I've heard more people say they're running games like that than games with no attack cantrips.I mean, you all realize there are groups out there who have entirely removed attack cantrips from their games, right?
(Btw how are your combats running to 5-6 rounds routinely? Simply by the math involved, unless you're doing something like routinely running Deadly-grade encounters for every combat, or using truly vast numbers of low-grade enemies, or inflating enemy HP, or I guess, starting combats at vast distances, that shouldn't really be possible.)
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