D&D 5E 5th Edition -- Caster Rule, Martials Drool?

[pemerton]

It might be hard to anecdotally confirm that this isn't an issue now, because there are a good number of people who didn't even see it as an issue in 3.5, and there are plenty more who will see anything short of 4e's broad mechanical equality as unplayable.

For what it's worth, my immediate worries are Tiny Hut, Forcecage, Reverse Gravity, plus the possibility that a wizard who spikes can dominate combat, casting a shadow of a length that a fighter doesn't really get a chance to do (even if, in other combats, the fighter is a bit more valuable than the wizard).

I'm also worried about high level fighter saving throws.

 

[Minigiant]

At what levels?

Level 6.

so Casters had slots of 4/3/3
1/2 Caster 4/2.

1st spell slots were almost in throwaway range.
But 1st spells were used for healing (Bugbears!!!), Comprehend Lang, and Mage Armor.

 

[pemerton]

Maybe it was our DM, but Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle just struck me as an utter railroad, and there wasn't anything any class could do about it. And the swamp portion, which had a couple open-ended goals didn't give us any reason to care about them. I think this speaks to the quality of the adventure

Interesting. A lot of people have been raving about the new 5e adventures.

I haven't read them yet, but I trust your judgement (although as you say, maybe you had a poor GM filter - but what you describe certainly fits with my preconceptions for a contemporary WotC module).

 

[pemerton]

1st spell slots were almost in throwaway range.
But 1st spells were used for healing (Bugbears!!!), Comprehend Lang, and Mage Armor.

Why not CL as a ritual?

 

[Minigiant]

Why not CL as a ritual?

Time constraints.

Had to cast it to read a sign to disable a triggered trap.

Off/On, Raise Temperature, Extinguish, Manual/Auto in Draconic.

 

[pemerton]

Time constraints.

I thought that must be the case - but I was expecting you to say that you used it to talk to bugbears (or something similar). The trap sounds more interesting!

 

[Pickles JG]

As DM I have toned down the magic for the setting.

• Limited the cantrips between short rests (casting in excess would lead to Fatigue, Spell Casting Failure for normal spells.
• Removed spells Invisibility, Fly, Gaseous Form, Raise Dead, Resurrection, Revivify, Speak with Dead,
• Healing does not mend broken noses, limp arms, mangled wrists, lame legs..etc unless the healing is cast immediately. Otherwise after a short period of time, casting healing on such injuries just closes the wound, stops the bleeding and any pain.
• Haste has a possibility of attaching a necromantic component on spell's effects which slightly ages the character.
• Casters need to have 10 + x in the casting ability stat to cast spell level x.

I do think a lot of the enjoyment has to with DM style, adventure and your players, but I have not experienced any short-comings in the system thus far.

 

[Minigiant]

I thought that must be the case - but I was expecting you to say that you used it to talk to bugbears (or something similar). The trap sounds more interesting!

My ranger spoke Goblin.
CL doesn't let you speak the languages in our game. You understand it and can repeat some words you hear but everything else is gibberish.

No stack of scrolls of tongues. Further limitation of utility.

 

[Sadras]

Toning down or up the level of magic in a system for thematic reasons due to setting preference does not equate to "I have a problem with the generic system" That guidance about level of magic in a campaign world has and will be in the DMG for ages, but hey don't take my word for it, pick up any DMG.

 

[I'm A Banana]

My concern is that they seem capable of shining in combat when the mood strikes them, and will likely dominate utility-type stuff due to their extreme versatility.

IM(limited)XP, and according to most of the play reports I've been seeing, limited spell slots do the job of preventing both of these from happening.

It's "I can be good in combat...OR I can kind of solve one of the other problems we have. Pick one."

I mean, 5e is explicit about what it's balancing noncombat on -- Exploration and Interaction. At the very highest levels, spell slots of levels 1-4 get pretty cheap, but the most effective spells even at that level don't really dominate either sphere. They're really useful, but they've got some key weaknesses.

It's also pretty clear that its days are 6-8 encounters long.

The best explicit Exploration and Interaction spells in Basic at level 9+, when those slots get pretty cheap, are probably Arcane Eye and Suggestion, respectively. And if you blow your 2nd and 4th level slots on those utility effects, and your 3rd and 1st level slots and your Arcane Recovery slots on trying to keep pace with Fireball, Mage Armor, and Magic Missile in combat (assuming you want to not be dead weight in a fight), hey presto, there's all of your disposable spells. You're left with a few higher-level cookies that you can bust out on occasion. On a 6-8 encounter day, this is not going to dominate. If your day is shorter, the caster will be more awesome, but the day's rest is comfortably in the hands of the DM in Basic (in the PH, the best solution to this is Tiny Hut, which is fully present on the material plane and thus basically a dinner bell to anything that finds adventurers delicious).