D&D 4E Arcane Spell Failure in 4E

[Dice4Hire]

Yay or Nay?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Yay or Nay?

I think it will remain. However, my guess also includes an alleviation of it. I'd say ignore 5-10% per point of Dex bonus you have.

 

[Li Shenron]

I don't know... In early 3.0 days I was quite shocked not to find anything in the early splatbooks that would have helped a Wizard lower its ASF. It seemed to me an obvious design choice for feats in Tome & Blood for instance.

But OTOH I'm not a fan of "gish" characters, so if ASF stays I won't complain too much.

 

[Exen Trik]

I think it will be gone, both because of the references to "gish" builds being more effective and the overall direction of simplifying the game. I don't know what kind of balance mechanism they might use in it's place though, maybe penalties to spell power or accuracy, or increasing casting time or such?

Lot's of unknowns with magic still...

 

[delericho]

My guess would be that it stays, but is redone. Instead of rolling a percentage chance of spell failure, the armoured Wizard must roll a Concentration check, with the Armour Check Modifier of the armour applying to the check.

However, I wouldn't be surprised to see it gone entirely, or even to stay unchanged.

Incidentally, I also expect spell components, except perhaps the expensive components for the likes of Wish, to be dropped also.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

It needs to stay as a balancing feature, but the specific mechanics could change (Concentration skill based might be a good approach).

 

[Horacio]

I hope the % roll is changed. I deeply dislike percentile rolls in d20, I would vote for a Concentration check where DC is function of armor worn, or something, but not a percentile roll.

 

[Gargoyle]

With casters rolling to see if their spells succeed, perhaps it will be a negative modifier to those rolls. That would only work if they have to roll on all spells, not just the ones that formerly required saves...

edit: This could be part of the initiative to scale casters back....fighters have to roll to hit every time, and with more spells at will and per encounter it seems reasonable that they would have to roll every spell. In other words, arcane failure might be possible all the time, not just when wearing armor.

 

[Christian]

Presuming that the SWSE save mechanic transfers to 4E, then arcane casters may suffer their armor's ACP to their rolls versus their target's defense.

 

[Gargoyle]

I hope the % roll is changed. I deeply dislike percentile rolls in d20, I would vote for a Concentration check where DC is function of armor worn, or something, but not a percentile roll.

I don't like percentile rolls either. But I'm not sure why.