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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shieldhaven" data-source="post: 6049965" data-attributes="member: 23427">A long time ago in my blog, I put together the following breakdown to explain why I thought there should be fewer than ten spell levels. Obviously this is based on 3.x D&D.tl;dr: If you start with modest effectiveness and increase upon it either eight or nine times (that's improvement relative to increasingly potent monsters), how could you not wind up with an unbalanced situation?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A first-level wizard can cast a first-level spell to moderately injure a level-appropriate opponent (magic missile). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A third-level wizard can injure a level-appropriate opponent a little bit more, or completely freaking murder a first-level opponent (I'm thinking of scorching ray here). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A fifth-level wizard can injure a large group of level-appropriate opponents, or completely freaking murder a large group of first-level opponents (fireball, lightning bolt). (Rarely used side note: hold person is great for single-target murder at this level.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A seventh-level wizard can inconvenience a large number of level-appropriate opponents (ice storm, wall of fire, whatevah) or slay outright one level-appropriate opponent who fails two saves. (phantasmal killer).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A ninth-level wizard can significantly injure a large group of level-appropriate opponents (cone of cold), instantly kill a huge swath of low-level opponents (cloudkill), or slay outright one level-appropriate opponent who fails one save (hold monster - okay, maybe technically two, depending on how the coup de grace works out for you). Baleful polymorph also gets a mention here - while they're not dead, a beached carp is not much of a threat, and you can whittle down their unaltered hit point total at your leisure.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An eleventh-level wizard can kill a level-appropriate target with one failed save (flesh to stone), and instantly kill a potentially very large number of almost-level-appropriate targets (circle of death). Note that we've left hit point damage behind. I regard this as bad, because a fighter and a wizard no longer really contribute to the other's attempt to kill a target. The wizard could keep slinging big evocations, of course, and these will continue to be a big problem for level-appropriate targets, but never really enough to kill an uninjured opponent outright.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A thirteenth-level wizard can kill a level-appropriate target in a variety of unusual ways, mostly based on spells specific to the creature's Type (banishment, mass hold person) or... kind of whatever. Reverse gravity is always good for a laugh, and it's a great workaround for high saving throws or spell resistance. So is finger of death - it's like disintegrate, but without that pesky ranged touch attack.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizards of fifteenth and seventeenth levels do commensurately more awful things to their opponents. Almost nothing in the ninth-level spell list deals hit point damage, other than meteor swarm, Bigby's crushing hand, and sometimes prismatic wall.</li> </ul>Haven</blockquote>

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