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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5785896" data-attributes="member: 54877">Part of the high level casters problem--of which wizards have been the poster child--is that with the right assumptions at the table, you can balance it. You can do this in any editions, though the "right assumptions" move a bit by edition. For example, in 1E, it is very easy to go full "operational resource management" mode and keep the wizard balanced well into the teen levels. And in 3E, you can do a bit of that mixed with "throw situations that only the casters can handle, that deplete their resources, and get the party nothing--then move onto the main adventure pieces." (In that latter styles, you'd put the giant on the bridge and make the giant over-powered, because you know full well that you are going to drain a teleport or similar magic out of the wizard. Do this enough, and don't spend too much time on it, then you've used effectively mere color to bring the casters back into balance.) The problem is, however, that most people don't want to balance this way. They've been complaining about it since D&D started, whether because the DM or rules went overboard and the low-level wizard was this cat-fearing, treasure bearing, glorified link-boy that took a share of the XP as an investment by the party for later returns--or because the DM or rules turned him into Mr. Teleport/Timestop/MeteorSwarm/Wish god. And even with a system as balanced as 4E, people are still complaining about needing about 4 encounters per day. In fact, one of the ways that BECMI and 1E fight against this is with the importance of items. Since items aren't intrinsically tied to the characters, you can handle a lot of these balance issues with distribution. Don't want Link-boy? Give the poor low-level wizard a wand and some scrolls. They'll get used up. Give him some more. When he stops needing them, stop giving them. Later, don't want Wish-god? Be stingy with equipment approrpriate for the upper level wizard, not so much for everyone else. (Check out the probabilities on the random treasure in the 1E DMG. This bias is built in.) 4E nodded in the direction of this with some things, but then undermined itself in other ways. For an example of how it might have been stronger, take the 3E conception of items, tweak the assumptions to be like 1E to deliberately favor the non-casters (whether assigned or random tables or straight fiat--it doesn't matter), and then use only one change from 4E: Move the problematic spells into "rituals" and do not tie them to character advancement at all. Make them a mix of equipment and plot device. You can cast a ritual because you find a scroll that lets you do that, and while the right character can make that scroll, it is tough to do. It's not a thing you do very often, and when you get one you save it for when it really matters. Sometimes, you find them. Sometimes, a "ritual" magic is part of a location or other immovable object.  There. Now the giant on the bridge encounter can be handled one of two ways, and the players get to pick: 1. Engage with it as normal.2. Bypass it using magical resources that are essentially non-renewable--at least on any regular schedule. Whether you then want the flavor of the wizard doing something magical with that magical resource--or prefer that such bypassing be more spread out amongst the group--doesn't matter for balance. Do it how ever you want.</blockquote>

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