30 levels what will it mean to spellcasters?

[Shadeydm]

Your thoughts?

Will there be more than 9 spell levels?
How many more could it be a new spell level every level?
How will the classes be balanced if your wizard or cleric can cast thier highest level spell every encounter?
Will Vanican magic officially be toast?
Will the new magic system be based off the psionic mechanics of 3.5?

 

[pawsplay]

D&D Basic had 36 levels, and clerics only got 8th level spells.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm hoping enough changes have been made to spellcasting that the 10 epic levels will be a natural progression instead of a new system.

 

[jmucchiello]

They said something about expanding the sweet spot. That means putting off teleport/raise dead until later. I suspect new spell levels will no longer be gained every other level.

 

[T. Foster]

My guess is more spell levels (up to 15, probably) and the whole thing rebalanced so that being able to cast all your spells once per encounter won't cause mages to totally dominate the game. The Vancian system won't disappear entirely, but I suspect it will be considerably less Vancian...

 

[mmadsen]

They said something about expanding the sweet spot. That means putting off teleport/raise dead until later. I suspect new spell levels will no longer be gained every other level.

Excellent.

 

[Turjan]

I heard you get much less spell slots than in 3.x, but can refresh them more often. Perhaps, you will have to stitch slots for higher level spells. With only a few slots available, high level spells would still be unavailable at low levels.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

One of the articles mentioned that the 30 levels is to build epic levels into the core rules rather than to extend non-epic levels by another 10.

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

I'm about to show my age...

: old man voice on: Back in my 1e days... the Magic User Spells Usable Per Day Table went all the way up to level 29. And we liked it that way! : old man voice off:

Ah, the days of no level limit. I never saw the need to limit my game to 20 levels. If you defeat the ultimate monster, well there's always its' mother. I know Beowulf still defeated her but as DM I could still work around that by creating bigger badder mothers.

 

[Nyeshet]

I've read that mages are supposed to still be useful even when they are out of spells, and that every level gained is 'meaningful' - which seems to suggest from recent class articles on WotC site that something is gained every level (class special, new casting level, etc).

So my guess is more class specials / bonus feats / whatever to fill the levels between gaining new spell levels. To keep this from overpowering the casters they receive new levels of spell casting less often (perhaps every third level, so that 10th level is the new max level of casting). With spell levels reorganized 9th and 10th could be the new 'epic' spell casting level - and not gained until the mid-20 levels.

Granted, this is all a guess. The idea of fewer slots that refill more often (perhaps each encounter? maybe once per hour?) could also work into this, although it sounds more like a warlock variant than a typical wizard.