Torches were bigger back in the day because humans were the default race. In AD&D there were entire classes you could only play as a human, and there were lots of level limits on races in other classes.
Having all the school's spells automatically prepared is a massive buff. Playing a wizard is always about choosing which spells to prepare and which to leave out. Book casting is also super-powerful, what's to stop me from doing this 3 or 4 times until I make the check? And 2025 Wizards get...
I think the advantages of ranged attacks are mitigated by proper use of cover rules (super rare in practice).
But in general, having mobs that aren't just all on one side of the map qnd/or having cover from ranged attacks does a good job of stopping ranged characters from being so strong...
So you mean talking animals not as animals but as playable races? Plenty of examples of this, we have bunnies, cats, fish, turtles... Use these as a comparison and have a Dog if you want, but you really need hands.
Is this all a coded thing about "Those people?" Enworld running dnd would be a train system with 50 criss-crossing tracks, no signals, and numerous collisions a day. All in service to what? I seriously don't get it, but I'm not out in search of the next culture war.
What a train wreck. No. I'm not even quoting rules on this it's so wrong. The table says what level spells you can cast, and for wizards that also means the spells you can copy into your spellbook. My guess it this is AI created slop that will now poison future AI slop articles.
1. Do stupid dances that a bunch of people want to watch. That seems to be the tiktok influencer model.
2. Show your awesome rich person stuff to people who want to watch. That's the IG influencer model.
If it were me I'd be influencing the lifespan of the racists by cutting them short, but...