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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mlund" data-source="post: 5946009" data-attributes="member: 50304">It has everything to do with cantrips. As you have a larger supply of more powerful spell effects at your disposal you have much less reason to spend your action in a turn on a cantrip.The structure presented in the play-test was a traditional accumulation of spell slots, concurrent with a convenient character sheet chart with total spell slots for spell levels from 1st to 7th.Absolutely nothing suggests the faintest hint you might "lose your first level slots over time."Stop right there. Mundane weapons do not "get better." They have the same exact profile they always had. Certain character classes give bonuses to damage with mundane weapons, bonus attacks, etc. That's not the same thing. That's what they get while Wizards are getting Fireballs and Lightning Bolts and Cloudkills and all that other escalated damage shenanigans in their spells.Vancian spell-casting uses Limited-Use Damage Expressions - higher damage (or the equivalent), less times per day. Escalating cantrip damage at the same rate as specialist melee attack damage-per-round would discard any semblance of balance between Vancian casters and other classes. You'd wind up having to give Rogues and Fighters Limited-Use Damage Expression powers and we'd just be having 4th Edition warmed over with all the gnashing of teeth and rending or garments that went before.No. Using the current curve presented in the play-test an 8th level wizard could be expected to have the following at his disposal.4 - 1st level spells4 - 2nd level spells4 - 3rd level spellsInfinite Cantrips Of those 1st level spells and cantrips only Magic Missile has scaled in any way, now giving 3 unerring missiles of 1d4+1 damage each every round. Magic missile and its scaling is the nail sticking up, and it's begging to get hammered down.I'd much rather see an option for gradual linear scaling of cantrip or all arcane spell damage - some sort of blanket +1 damage per 2 caster levels or something. It isn't perfect, but it helps the lower-end spells of the wizard (including cantrips) be better combat resources without the unfortunate mess that was Fireball scaling to 10d6 damage at 10th level using the same spell slot it did at 5th level.Highly unlikely according to evidence. It goes against the premise of "lab-ready abilities co-opted for combat" that Mearls rolled out and later reinforced when questioned. It looks way more like a hasty cut-and-paste job out of earlier editions of the magic missile spell - just like the admitted stop-gap cut-and-paste job done on the armor tables.Definitely. Reading comprehension is hardly a special insight.- Marty Lund</blockquote>

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