D&D 4E Arcane Spell Failure in 4E

[ruleslawyer]

They'll give wizards the ability to have Mage Armor always on, and have its bonus increase with level. Fighter/mages may have access to feats or abilities to increase this bonus further.

I'd say this is the likeliest scenario. That said, I could also see keeping ASF (probably in the form of a penalty to casting checks, as Christian suggested) but knocking off points for levels in martial classes. Thus, A fighter 2/wizard 6 might ignore 2 or 4 points of ASF.

 

[Christian]

with fighters getting a "martial power source"

I swear, I just read that as 'marital power source'.

That would actually be kind of cool! But it probably couldn't stand as a power source on its own--probably, it would have to be some sort of supplement to a primary power source. We could call it something like a 'marital aid'.

If we wanted to.

(OK, I'm actually just bumping this up above the new thread on the same topic that got opened this afternoon.)

 

[Voadam]

Psions do not unbalance the game with no ASF. I have not seen many take armor even without ASF. Multiclassing or spending feats to take armor proficiencies combined with a class not designed for strength seems to mechanically be enough of a disincentive to reinforce the armorless archetype.

 

[Just Another User]

Nay. ASF is unneeded.

You can encourage arcanists to avoid heavy armor by providing cheap magical defenses that compare favorably to armor (and shields), such as inertial armor or mage armor. An arcanist with mediocre strength isn't going to bother with the expense, weight, ACP, and speed reduction of heavy armor when magical alternatives are available.

Problem, why fighters should not use them, too? Either they are better than plate mail, and then fighter will buy a magic item* that give the ability to them at the first occasion, or plate mial are better, and then arcanists will want to use plate mail, too.

* what if there is not such a magic item? Just wait for the first splatbook and it will certainly be there.

 

[Blacksmithking]

Problem, why fighters should not use them, too? Either they are better than plate mail, and then fighter will buy a magic item* that give the ability to them at the first occasion, or plate mial are better, and then arcanists will want to use plate mail, too.

Why don't fighters buy bracers of armor in 3.5e?

You can dump ASF if you make magical defenses, such as mage armor, attractive to arcanists but unattractive to martial characters. If mage armor is cheap in terms of opportunity cost to an arcanist, he'll use it. As long as it is expensive as a magic item, martial characters will opt for real armor instead. Besides, not every spell can be shoehorned into the magic item creation system.

 

[pawsplay]

Replaced with some kind of nonproficiency penalty.

 

[Gloombunny]

I don't like the idea of constant, high-powered mage armor. Arbitrarily stating that wizards can't have armor, then giving it back to them in the form of a spell... what's the point? If they're supposed to have a certain AC all the time, let them wear armor like everyone else. Defensive magic should have a different mechanical feel than armor.

I'd like to see some sort of Strength requirement replace (wholly or partially) the arbitrary proficiencies. A wizard who wants to wear heavy armor could just put some of those attribute points into Str. Most wizards wouldn't want to divert points away from their precious Int, of course, but warrior-mages would probably have a decent Str anyway and so would have no problem. (Armor would still reduce mobility and stealth, of course, so classes like ranger would tend towards the lighter stuff even when they have a good Str.)

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'd like to see it go, to make fighter/wizards something like viable. However, I think that there should be some kind of reward for players who stick to the "guy in robes and a funny hat" wardrobe, so that we see wizardy wizards sometimes.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I see no reason for ASF. Assuming this correlates to 3E, wizards already aren't proficient in armor. If a wizard character wants to spend three feats (or whatever the equivalent is in 4E) to be proficient, I say let 'em.

 

[Rakin]

I like the excitement of the insane powerful caster but has to pull of his spells. It adds exctiement and unperdictability to the game.

If was going to be playing 4e I'd like to see the casting times come back, along with more powerful and fun spells.

remember back in the day: "Oh ^#@$! That guy is casting somehing! Hit him! Hit him! HIT HIM!!!! SOMEONE FOR THE....you get the point."

All this instant spell stuff takes a lot of the excitiement and feeling of danger out of the game. imo.

I think this is a great post