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

[Sepulchrave II]

But come 3e Wizards kinda removed all of this for the most part due to streamlining and ended up buffing these classes far, while also putting all of the fighters features into feats, and the game has simply never quite recovered from this.

I don't think this is a fair criticism of 3.X.

Spellcasting is routinely interrupted by AoOs and readied actions, casting defensively is not guaranteed, and casting a spell in combat from anything other than a secure position - i.e. protected by martials - is ill advised: when multiple enemies turn their attention on a wizard, it doesn't go well IME. And if they see them cast a spell, why wouldn't they?

 

[Stormonu]

"Man, shut yo bi--"
nah but really, making spellcasting trigger attacks of opportunity and letting those attacks of opportunity force concentration checks could be nice. you could make offensive touch spells an exception to that just so they're still usable.

I think this would be a good start; casting a non-melee/non-cantrip spell provoking opportunity attacks - on a hit the caster needs to make a concentration save to keep from losing the spell. Change mage slayer so that someone with that feat can make an opportunity attack if they are within 30 feet.

 

[Stormonu]

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

If someone has higher initiative (or waits for the next round), they can READY an action, most often missile attacks. If they hit, the caster needs to do a Concentration skill check (essentially a Constitution save can be buffed with Skill Points) or lose the spell - the spell is not cast and the slot is lost.

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.

It does (I still DM 3.5e) have the effects folks are saying. Fighters need to protect casters, especially unarmored arcane casters, and it is like infantry + artillery, or the linemen and the quarterback.

In 1E/2E, if the caster got hit before his initiative, the spell was lost. No save or check, a single point was sufficient. In those editions, you stated intent before initiative was rolled (and it was rerolled each round) - spellcasters had to be very careful to ensure they were out of the line of fire, or be very desperate to cast in the middle of a close fight.

 

[Redwizard007]

In 1E/2E, if the caster got hit before his initiative, the spell was lost. No save or check, a single point was sufficient. In those editions, you stated intent before initiative was rolled (and it was rerolled each round) - spellcasters had to be very careful to ensure they were out of the line of fire, or be very desperate to cast in the middle of a close fight.

Ah, yes. The editions where wizards spent more loot on darts than they did on spell components.

 

[Stormonu]

Ah, yes. The editions where wizards spent more loot on darts than they did on spell components.

Yeah, I can imagine in 1E/2E days a lot of wizard duels were actually games of lawn darts instead of using actual spells against each other....

 

[haakon1]

In 1E/2E … you stated intent before initiative was rolled

I never saw that, and I played 1e for 12 years with 4 different DM’s. It’s been 20 years, so maybe I forgot, but I’m 99% sure we never did that.

Yet there it is in the DMG, p. 65, a few pages after it explains to roll initiative by side to speed things up. It says casters need to declare before initiative for the round is rolled. In the example, all of side A goes, then all of side B (with Gutboy Barrelhouse & Blastum, if you remember those names!) with no interrupts in the example given, but it does mention the casters were planning spells. And it mentions weapon type versus armor type.

Maybe spellcasters decide early was like Weapon Speed Factor or specific weapon type versus specific armor type, which everyone I knew completely ignored? Inverse of critical hits, which everyone did despite (IIRC) not actually being in the rules.

spellcasters had to be very careful to ensure they were out of the line of fire, or be very desperate to cast in the middle of a close fight.

That I remember. MU’s were definitely squishy.

 

[haakon1]

Ah, yes. The editions where wizards spent more loot on darts than they did on spell components.

Is there really a need to malign AD&D with nonsense like this?

 

[Zardnaar]

"Man, shut yo bi--"
nah but really, making spellcasting trigger attacks of opportunity and letting those attacks of opportunity force concentration checks could be nice. you could make offensive touch spells an exception to that just so they're still usable.

This would be one way to do it.

 

[Zardnaar]

In 1E/2E, if the caster got hit before his initiative, the spell was lost. No save or check, a single point was sufficient. In those editions, you stated intent before initiative was rolled (and it was rerolled each round) - spellcasters had to be very careful to ensure they were out of the line of fire, or be very desperate to cast in the middle of a close fight.

And they lost the spell slot. We used weapon speed and casting times.

Even without that resorting to wands etc was a good idea sometimes.

I remember a fighter had to bail out a wizard once vs death from a deck of many things. Fighter fought death twice and won.

 

[Lanefan]

This would dramatically change the game. It would make spells in melee combat, even combat spells intended for melee, like Haste, Blur, Mage Armor and Spirit Guardians much more difficult to cast and less useful.

I think that's the point. You cast these spells before combat starts, not after.

Casting while in melee being flat-out impossible should be the default.

==============
As for the OP: an excellent start but doesn't go nearly far enough.

ANY interruption - jostling, damage, grapple, restraint, etc - while casting and bang goes your spell. No save. And as you already committed to using the slot when you started casting, the slot is lost. Even better would be that interrupting a spell risks a wild magic surge as that energy is released in a manner unintended.

To make this work, spellcasting should take time within a round. Two initiative pips per spell level should do, carrying over into the next round if you haven't time left in this one. To wit, if your initiative is 9 and you're casting a 2nd-level spell you start on 9 but don't resolve until 5, during which time you're wide open to being interrupted; while if you're casting a 6th level spell you start on a 9 but don't resolve until 17 of the following round.

The flip side is that making spells vulnerable like this opens up space to make them more potent if-when they do go off.