Blaster Casters

[Lanefan]

I usually only play 2 types of casters:

Illusionists, if I feel like messing with people's minds.

Blasters, because nothing is more fun than blowing things up! (particularly if you don't bother to aim...)

Controllers, buffers, etc. are probably more useful, and certainly so in particular situations; but playing one would bore me out of my mind after a while.

Lan-"all D+D settings look better when they're on fire"-efan

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

One of my most memorable characters was a 3e blaster sorcerer named MacCool. He was [in]famous for getting grappled by big things and then Shock Grasping his way out...or until he went under. God bless acid substitution and rapid metamagic!

Though really, 3e spells in general need fixing, as I've begun to do here.

The only systemic problem with 4e blasting is...well, orb of imposition, which is easy enough to house rule.

 

[Doug McCrae]

In 3.5, blaster casters are the weakest form of caster, even weaker than non-casters for single target damage. Even with Scorching Ray and various forms of metamagic (such as rods and the Sudden metamagic feats), a charge build should be doing more.

That said, I've always found blowing up to be more fun. In a oneoff I really enjoyed playing a warmage called Flaming Helen who tried to solve every problem by 'burning it with fire'. In fact it turned out she was 100% right - every challenge she faced was indeed overcome by being burned with fire, including a lich.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

One of my favorite 3.5 characters was my paladin-warmage. Ah, he was fun. Nothing like a double-widened firebrand to liven up a party!

Brad

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've played blasters, buffers, saboteurs and controllers. Love 'em all!

I tend towards Transmuters & Diviners, though.

Still, even when I wasn't playing a true blaster, I often had some blasting mentality creep in. My Mage-Brute who mainly had "utility" spells still usually used his spell slots to power his Draconic Breath Weapon.