Unpopular opinions go here

[overgeeked]

I'd be a lot more amenable to that position if they were good games. Most of what people point to as examples of game forward mechanics in RPGs are basically roll-to-move equivalents dressed up a little.

Tabletop RPGs could learn a lot from both video games and board games. A lot of people are...resistant...to the idea.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Its absolutely a problem balancing out powerful magic systems and characters who don't do magic. Of course with Ars Magica and things like Mage, they don't really try; everyone is a mage.

There are ways to at least somewhat balance it out, but it requires either weaker magic or a willingness to provide methods for non-mages to exhibit pretty high end abilities, and neither of those seems to be generally okay with fairly big parts of D&D fandom.

Everyone is also not a mage in Ars Magica, and the expectation is that you will have zero to one mages in actual play at any one time. If D&D had a similar restriction on how many characters could use spells in a party and every player was expected to rotate characters between adventures, that would help. But again, a huge change to D&D and, after a certain amount of changes, you're probably better off just playing Ars Magica.

 

[overgeeked]

Everyone is also not a mage in Ars Magica, and the expectation is that you will have zero to one mages in actual play at any one time. If D&D had a similar restriction on how many characters could use spells in a party and every player was expected to rotate characters between adventures, that would help. But again, a huge change to D&D and, after a certain amount of changes, you're probably better off just playing Ars Magica.

If they went back to wizards sucking at low levels it would help. But that's against their design ethos.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If they went back to wizards sucking at low levels it would help. But that's against their design ethos.

I think they could make wizards suck more at low levels without making them suck as much as they did in OD&D. I think part of the problem is the rhetoric around the issue is very all or nothing.

 

[CleverNickName]

It would be rad if cantrips didn't automatically scale up with character level.

 

[payn]

It would be rad if cantrips didn't automatically scale up with character level.

Like 3E/PF1?

 

[overgeeked]

I think they could make wizards suck more at low levels without making them suck as much as they did in OD&D. I think part of the problem is the rhetoric around the issue is very all or nothing.

There's also the problem that sucking at low levels...well...sucks. It's no fun to play, so people complain, so wizards get buffed.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It would be rad if cantrips didn't automatically scale up with character level.

I'd prefer if cantrips worked like weapons, and casting classes gained the equivalent to martial's Extra Attack at 5th level where you could cast another cantrip as part of the Cast action. The main at-will dependent spellcaster of your choice (either Warlock or Sorcerer, IMHO) would even gain Extra Cantrip at 5th/11th/20th like the fighter.

It be cooler to have the mage do a composite round of Shocking Grasp -> move out -> Ray of Frost -> Firebolt -> Firebolt for 1d8+1d6+1d10+1d10 than a single ''pew'' firebolt for 4d10.

 

[overgeeked]

I'd prefer if cantrips worked like weapons, and casting classes gained the equivalent to martial's Extra Attack at 5th level where you could cast another cantrip as part of the Cast action. The main at-will dependent spellcaster of your choice (either Warlock or Sorcerer, IMHO) would even gain Extra Cantrip at 5th/11th/20th like the fighter.

It be cooler to have the mage do a composite round of Shocking Grasp -> move out -> Ray of Frost -> Firebolt -> Firebolt for 1d8+1d6+1d10+1d10 than a single ''pew'' firebolt for 4d10.

Yeah. You either need to actually balance classes as in make them literally equal or you need to have them all be unbalanced in different ways. As it stands, casters are just unbalanced and non-casters just suck in comparison. Likely why they're making basically everyone a caster.

 

[Reynard]

I don't remember what thread I saw it in so I am going to put it here:

I am really warming up to the idea of wizards that are very powerful but with very limited resources and absolutely NO combat spells.