D&D 5E Casters should go back to being interruptable like they used to be.

[CreamCloud0]

Or maybe be a little creative, and come up with something else to do if you run out spells.

yeah, don't worry casters, as you're so fond of telling martials you have infinite possibilities at your fingertips using your skills and creativity! you don't need your spell slots to be effective!

 

[Shardstone]

Or maybe be a little creative, and come up with something else to do if you run out spells.

I don't understand this response. My alternatives at the bottom of that post not only achieve the same design goals you're requesting, but also requires the caster to be creative afterward, since they still lose their slots on out-of-control spells etc. It really feels like you throw out these petty barbs masquerading as complaints without trying to engage with the ideas being presented. Like you read the first few words and instead of digesting the idea, you just attack the idea.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Good times. I still prefer they did it that way.

1e and 2e also had several times more spell slots. They were unreliable cannons with lots of ammo while 5e are highly reliable casters with a small magazine.

Earlier editions: 20th level caster in melee casts meteor swarm, fighter interrupts spell. Caster moves behind meat shields, casts meteor swarm, archer interrupts casting. Caster drinks potion of invis, moves behind cover and casts meteor swarm the next round. Repeats with Sunbursts and delayed blast fireballs over next six rounds as heroes try to find them, having all spells 6th and below left.

5e:20th level caster uses meteor swarm. If a counterspell caster is around with a reaction, roll dice to see if the spell goes off. Otherwise it goes off. Over n3xt six rounds launch Sunburst, Delayed Blast fireballs and upcast fireballs, using up all 6th- 8th spell slots.

5e + 1e disruption: 20th level caster in melee casts meteor swarm, fighter interrupts spell. Caster moves behind meat shields, casts 8th level sunburst , archer interrupts casting. Caster drinks potion of invis, moves behind cover and casts 7th level delayed blast fireball the next round. Over next six rounds exhausts all spells 5th and 6th level spells, down to just the 4ths and below.

Similar....but not the same.

 

[Demetrios1453]

2e definitely had rules for casting times for spells, usually one segment (each initiative count during the round) per level (there were speed factors for weapons which added to your initiative as well). The way we played it then was that you declared your spell on your initiative, and hoped you didn't get hit during your casting time, or the spell would fail to go off. I'm not sure if this was 100% RAW, but it did work fine for our combats, and definitely added some tension if enemies got to go while you were casting.

 

[Shardstone]

1e and 2e also had several times more spell slots. They were unreliable cannons with lots of ammo while 5e are highly reliable casters with a small magazine.

Earlier editions: 20th level caster in melee casts meteor swarm, fighter interrupts spell. Caster moves behind meat shields, casts meteor swarm, archer interrupts casting. Caster drinks potion of invis, moves behind cover and casts meteor swarm the next round. Repeats with Sunbursts and delayed blast fireballs over next six rounds as heroes try to find them, having all spells 6th and below left.

5e:20th level caster uses meteor swarm. If a counterspell caster is around with a reaction, roll dice to see if the spell goes off. Otherwise it goes off. Over n3xt six rounds launch Sunburst, Delayed Blast fireballs and upcast fireballs, using up all 6th- 8th spell slots.

5e + 1e disruption: 20th level caster in melee casts meteor swarm, fighter interrupts spell. Caster moves behind meat shields, casts 8th level sunburst , archer interrupts casting. Caster drinks potion of invis, moves behind cover and casts 7th level delayed blast fireball the next round. Over next six rounds exhausts all spells 5th and 6th level spells, down to just the 4ths and below.

Similar....but not the same.

This is a great point. I'd be super fine with these rules if I had three times the spell slots I do now! Lmao

 

[ezo]

I feel this should return, casting being interruptable in some form, but i feel there is a better and more modern way to do this.

"If you are hit while casting a 1st-level or higher spell, make a constitution check as if you were concentrating on a spell, on a failure, the spell fails and you lose the action used to cast the spell, the spell slot is not expended."

Unless you have some way to allow the caster to be hit while casting, this will never happen as most casting times are 1 action and you cannot (normally) interrupt another creature's action; the Ready Action being the most likely way, though. But this makes it so unlikely that it isn't worth bothering with.

If the spell has a longer casting time, this is already baked in that a concentration check is required.

And if you wanna bring back the old rules of getting hit in the round before your turn loses you your spell cast, but in a modern way, you can just do this.

"If you take damage during combat, you cannot cast a 1st-level or higher spell until the end of your next turn."

This is better IMO and I think actually works as intended, but seems a bit awkwardly worded.

1e and 2e also had several times more spell slots.

This is not really true, at least for a AD&D Magic-User vs. a 5E Wizard (especially factoring in Arcane Recovery).

The Magic-User doesn't have more spell slots until 13th level, and doesn't ever have "several times" more spell slots. In tier 4, the M-U barely has "several" more spell slots. If you look at it over all 20 levels, the 5E Wizard has more spell slots (383) vs. the AD&D M-U (364).

 

[Micah Sweet]

1e and 2e also had several times more spell slots. They were unreliable cannons with lots of ammo while 5e are highly reliable casters with a small magazine.

Yes. When I say I wish it was still done that way, I mostly mean the whole thing.

 

[Votan]

In 3x, casters ARE interruptible. It happens often.

I don't remember seeing that in other editions, whether AD&D (before 3e) or later editions. Maybe I just didn’t notice folks doing that In 1/2 & 4e. To my memory, 3e/3.5e is the only edition that explicit called for the approach you say it killed.

Slightly trimmed but casting in 1E was explicitly interruptible. Typically via initiative -- you declare spells before it is rolled and if the other side wins they can hit you to ruin the spell. The 3E version was actually a mild caster buff in my experience.

 

[ECMO3]

While I would allow actual melee intended spells to not trigger and AoO and a Conc check, absolutely none of these are melee spells. They're all buffs you precast before going into punching range. No. If you cast those in melee, you get stabbed.

Most of the time I cast them in play I am in punching range and with a minute duration for most of them, there is not a lot of opportunity to cast ahead of time.

Mage Armor would be the only exception on that list, but even Mage Armor gets cast in combat quite a bit when you have combat when not expecting it (for example your camp is ambushed while resting).

I think it will be hard finding players for such a game as I don't think most players will like this.

Penalties for casting in melee has been a thing from 1E to 3.5E and I don't think it was generally liked, which is why they got rid of it I think.

 

[kigmatzomat]

1e and 2e also had several times more spell slots.

The Magic-User doesn't have more spell slots until 13th level, and doesn't ever have "several times" more spell slots. In tier 4, the M-U barely has "several" more spell slots. If you look at it over all 20 levels, the 5E Wizard has more spell slots (383) vs. the AD&D M-U (364).

View attachment 336517

Let's look by spell level. My books have disintegrated but this is from a Google search:

.....1e.5e
6th 4 2
7th 3 2
8th 3 1
9th 2 1

Yeah, that looks like multiples. 2-3x as many spells at those levels.