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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6337395" data-attributes="member: 6776279">I think the 5B magic system and spells is a marked improvement over 3X and Pathfinder, though I'm not completely happy with cantrips and certain spells (gate). I also want more mundane counters to magic and more built in limitations to prevent magic primacy. But the lack of innate spell scaling and forcing casters to choose what spell to concentrate on is a massive help in preventing the Quadratic Caster problem. Having concentration potentially end on damage makes casters a natural target AND makes them squishier as defensive buffs are more of a crapshoot. This gives casters a legitimate weakness and encourages teamwork with other character classes to distract the enemy, block access to the wizard, and otherwise suppress enemy attacks on the casters. That's got to be a good thing.You didn't mention the biggest change: the non-Vancian prep & slot system. It gives more flexibility countered by fewer overall slots per day. It's a massive change from early editions, but I think a necessary one. 3X casters got so many slots that the limitation became a joke in anything other than the most grindy of adventures and, at the same time, many wizard players hated the anxiety of choosing spell lists each day. Also, this new system is more lenient to refluffing. It can ably serve as a spell point system or almost anything else you need without the shadow of Vancian magic. I haven't used the system as of yet, so I don't know if the implementation is good throughout all levels of play.Wall of stone has a permanent duration if you concentrate on it for 10 minutes so you can still get some cheap building done on your castle.Splatbooks and additional content IS a worry, as always. I'm hoping their concept of a "living ruleset" also includes carefully vetting and playtesting content before release. I'm also hoping they have an in-house Content Creation Bible listing balance parameters and danger areas. "Thou shalt not create something that allows free concentration or double concentration, or ignores concentration" or "Thou shalt not create a spell whose effects scale naturally with level, unless said spell is a cantrip and is balanced in effect with other cantrips" or "Thou shall not create a spell with a range of 75ft. Pick 60ft or 120ft in keeping with the nature of the spell." I don't worry so much about the original design team knowing and understanding these factors, I worry about Dragon Magazine writers and editors not properly vetting content on a hectic monthly publication schedule.I'm guardedly optimistic, as usual.</blockquote>

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