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Balancing Instant Death
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<blockquote data-quote="jmucchiello" data-source="post: 7649357" data-attributes="member: 813"><p>I'm implying that how? My wizard was 1st level, not 5th.</p><p></p><p>First of all, like KM, I was calling back to all versions of D&D. In 1e or B/X or OD&D if you played a wizard, you had exactly one spell at first level. And if you were very unlucky, it was mending. In 1e, a dozen PCs and NPCs go into the dungeon and don't leave without lots of loot. You could easily have 5-10 combats in a 4-6 hour play sessions. And there were no chances to relearn that one spell in the dungeon. As for 9 in 10, that had nothing to do with how many combats there were per day. It had to do with how often the BBEG is going to make the saving throw again that one combat ending spell the wizard has OR if the wizard made it to the Big Boss fight without having spent that one spell he has. When you only have one spell and get surrounded or cut off in an earlier encounter, odds are you had to give up your spell(s) early.</p><p></p><p>I said nothing about 5th level. You brought that up. My example was the 1st level wizard. And at 5th level a 1e wizard had 4 1st, 2 2nd and 1 3rd level spell. That's it. And in 1e, you couldn't make potions or wands at 5th level. You need to get to 2nd edition to have specialists and that just adds one spell per level. As for your description of 3e, well, I do believe I was saying that the problem is that wizards have too many spells. So you agree with me, I guess, that one way to balance save or suck is to return to wizards needing to think wisely about whether or not they should expend their EXTREMELY LIMITED resources (spells) now or later. That for me is the heart of playing a wizard and this has been lost through the last few iterations of D&D.</p><p></p><p>The current concept that everyone should have something they can do each round of combat is bunk. It's not the designer's place to decide this. It is the player who should have this responsibility. The designer just has to make sure the player has options beyond character design. That's why the wizard carries a quarterstaff or dozens of darts. So that when he isn't casting spells he can still defend himself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jmucchiello, post: 7649357, member: 813"] I'm implying that how? My wizard was 1st level, not 5th. First of all, like KM, I was calling back to all versions of D&D. In 1e or B/X or OD&D if you played a wizard, you had exactly one spell at first level. And if you were very unlucky, it was mending. In 1e, a dozen PCs and NPCs go into the dungeon and don't leave without lots of loot. You could easily have 5-10 combats in a 4-6 hour play sessions. And there were no chances to relearn that one spell in the dungeon. As for 9 in 10, that had nothing to do with how many combats there were per day. It had to do with how often the BBEG is going to make the saving throw again that one combat ending spell the wizard has OR if the wizard made it to the Big Boss fight without having spent that one spell he has. When you only have one spell and get surrounded or cut off in an earlier encounter, odds are you had to give up your spell(s) early. I said nothing about 5th level. You brought that up. My example was the 1st level wizard. And at 5th level a 1e wizard had 4 1st, 2 2nd and 1 3rd level spell. That's it. And in 1e, you couldn't make potions or wands at 5th level. You need to get to 2nd edition to have specialists and that just adds one spell per level. As for your description of 3e, well, I do believe I was saying that the problem is that wizards have too many spells. So you agree with me, I guess, that one way to balance save or suck is to return to wizards needing to think wisely about whether or not they should expend their EXTREMELY LIMITED resources (spells) now or later. That for me is the heart of playing a wizard and this has been lost through the last few iterations of D&D. The current concept that everyone should have something they can do each round of combat is bunk. It's not the designer's place to decide this. It is the player who should have this responsibility. The designer just has to make sure the player has options beyond character design. That's why the wizard carries a quarterstaff or dozens of darts. So that when he isn't casting spells he can still defend himself. [/QUOTE]
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