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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9208990" data-attributes="member: 9254">This is a lot of history and comparative analysis.  Tl:dr the editions use an array of different mechanics for balance that cannot be evaluated individually, you must consider the whole of the system.As a gorgnard who played a lot of ADD, 2e, 3e and 5e I can tell you confidently that through 3e  non-casters could screw up casters. Nothing like an angry mob of halflings throwing rocks at a trouble making PC wizard to make them realize their frailty and that they should utter their threats from out of range.  To be honest, lots of DMs skipped chunks of those rules (especially the parts where you lost Dex bonus for the segments you were casting) because it made wizard players whine and it nerfed their favorite BBEG.5e took a different tact. Casters get fewer big spells.  Go look at the 3e SRD. A 20th level wizard or druid got four (4) 9th level spells, a cleric got 5 (including domain) and a sorcerer got 6. (<a href="https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/3e_SRD:Classes" target="_blank">https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/3e_SRD:Classes</a>). They had as many lower level spells.  Well, more really, because they got bonus castings per day based on stat.  An 18 stat was good for an extra 1st-4th.  At 20 stat you got 2x 1st and an extra 2nd-5th.5e casters only get 4 spells for 1st level, cap at 3/day for 2nd-5th, 2/day 6th-7th and they never get more than 1x 8th or 9th level spell.   On top of that, spells had fixed durations so you could layer on spells. The invisible/silent thief was possible.  As was the flying, invisible, silent, stone-skinned, telepathic tenser's transformed wizard.  What's different is that in <=3.5e (and maybe 4e, I only played like 4 times) a caster would lose the action, the spell slot and some hit points and had to hope they lived to try again.  5e casters are pretty well guaranteed to succeed or at the very least they are draining another caster of a fireball-worthy spell slot, which is itself a partial success.However those <=3.5e casters burned a lot of slots to have flight, invis, AC so they had a chance of getting spells off so they didn't have all those slots for blasting fireball.  There were also restraints in some editions on spell recovery, where you got so many spell levels per hour of prep back and you were capped at 8 hours of prep.The tactics & balance change based on the parameters: # spells/day, ease of disruption, spell duration, need for concentration.If you took 2e casting times+disruption plus 5e spell slots & concentration and casters would wind up with six hirelings carrying a mobile barricade to provide full cover and/or the 2-minute game day.Go the other way with 3e spells except 5e disruption and casters become the tiny gods they were usually accused of being because they wouldn't need to use  slots spells on defense from muggles.I am not sure which I prefer. As a non-caster, I liked whomping a caster and seeing a spell fizzle. Likewise it appeals to my tactical gamer side.As a 5e caster, having my one and only high level spell slot get nerfed by a spell 4 levels lower is exasperating. If it could be done by a halfling child with a bag of pebbles I would chew on the table.As a GM the time it took for a <=3.5e party to "go super saiyan" could be irritating, as was tracking a whole matrix of spell duration. Throwing dispel magic at them and listening to the wails was fun but then it was a mess of recalculating bonuses.(Edited autocorrect and some formatting)</blockquote>

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