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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdweller00" data-source="post: 8847770" data-attributes="member: 6778479">Certainly the Potterverse is different from our own.  Within the context of the fictional world, flying on a broom, say, or levitating objects with a spell is fairly mundane.  From the standpoint of our world looking in, it's difficult for me (personally) to empathize or imagine myself within the Potterverse because of 1) how different it is (for example world or time breaking magic being apparently fairly common), and 2) how...caricaturish the whole thing comes across.  Waving sticks and uttering silly, pseudolatin phrases to change reality.As far as LOTR: Lighting a pipe with a magical spark doesn't come across as a gross, wonder-diluting display of magic to me personally.  Magic overall in LOTR is quite subtle...which helps maintain the mystique of it IMO.  And more often than not is invested in the craft of objects.  Keep in mind that even Morgoth, the most powerful, magical being short of the creator deity (Eru Illuvatar) resorts to weapon use on the one occasion he is depicted in battle; rather than flying, hurling lightning bolts, or the like.  Although clearly there was SOME magic also being used there "Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it down like a bolt of thunder.  But Fingolfin sprang aside, and Grond rent a mighty pit in the earth, whence smoke and fire darted."  (Silmarillion, Ch.18 - Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin).Magic effects are frequently written/designed without regard to real-world physics certainly...but at least with respect to conservation/thermodynamics...not necessarily?  They just needs extra (or different) laws, forces, sources of energy to make them work.  Regardless - generally speaking for myself at least, the farther a fictional world seems divorced from our reality the more difficult it is to empathize with or visualize myself in it.  We still generally presume in the D&D that the default physical world has gravity, planetary curvature, conservation of momentum for most things, inertia, etc.I was talking about the binary (boolean) presence of the traits.  Not entirely sure why having multiple would be relevant here?Presuming that a spellcaster is the only or even most effective way to bypass them.  Magic weapons are usually amongst the more common magic items, at least in published adventures, not to mention torches, acid, oil, etc.  Comparatively few monsters have outright weapon immunity.  There are similarly plenty of monsters that give casters difficulty...or where the META favor direct physical attacks (or at least fall more quickly to weapon-focused classes) in my experience.  Exceptions, variations, and DM-dependency of course.One should generally evaluate and, if necessary, re-evaluate rule mechanics that are causing problems in your particular game.  Regardless of source.  I don't, to the best of my recollection, typically have more issues with casters over non-casters in games I've run (as DM).Good descriptions certainly go a long way toward creating mystique or specialness as well.Fair enough.  If the goal is to force people to admit that one's personal views are the one, true way, sure.  I personally discuss and debate a lot of different subjects, hobbies, and interests in a variety of forums over the internet.  I see quite a lot of pathologies - needing to get the last word in, bruised egos, general unwillingness to admit being wrong, insistence that people's subjective opinions and experiences can be wrong in the first place.  Rather frequently I observe people who essentially hold the same viewpoint engage in bitter, multi-page debates.Yes.  But the non-casters trying to prevent the Wizard (or M-U) from getting their Doom Spell off would also have some control over whether and to what degree this happens.  For example - using quick weapons or hordes of minions to make it more likely to get strikes in first (e.g. more likely to get a favorable initiative roll).  Or stealthy combatants to assassinate the squishies beforehand.  That's how tactics works?Ok, yeah.  Though I find novaing to be as much a balance issue for non-casters as casters.  Well...maybe SLIGHTLY less of the time since the VERY few subclasses that do not have ANY limited-use abilities (Thief Rogue, etc) are all non-casters.If you're talking about 1e/2e spell balance here, I'm going to have to bow out.  It's been too many years (decades) since I've played to still have a sense of the meta.  If you're talking 5e...Chromatic Orb, for example, deals fairly significantly less damage on average than, say, Magic Missile.  And neither maintain fantastic usefulness at higher levels.  I seem to recall it was widely acknowledged to be an outlier in 1e/2e?  Invisibility and Fly are and were great and broadly useful spells, but hardly the solution to every problem; or even major subsets of problem.  Certainly with multiple different effects available, in multiple different publications, you're eventually going to have some that are better balanced than others.  Kind of the nature of the beast.  And once again - not specific to casters.I don't think I've ever experienced significant balance issues with ritual spells in 5e, outside of Leomund's Tiny Hut; for reasons previously outlined.  Maybe some minor annoyances with dead, secret, and/or super-obscure writing and Comprehend Languages.Even within a game world, DM-chosen rewards have plenty of ability to warp the degree of fun or power experienced by individual players.  That's kinda why it's important to continually re-evaluate game balance as DM.Personally?  I try to keep my rulings consistent.  If that still results in balance or narrative issues, I look for in-game ways to get around them (e.g. "Can I get around this invisibility abuse by putting in guard dogs?").  If that STILL fails, I talk to my players about how and why the present ruling is no longer working for me.  What I don't do is change things around behind the players' backs just because it's convenient.  Of course, I'm human.  And sometimes I forget things.I don't recall actually ever having any issues with non-spell or non-item ways of creating 5mwds?  I've got a whole bag of tricks developed in response over the years.  Examples would include:  Reinforcements in an enemy stronghold, assassins/hunting parties that track down invaders, wandering monsters, defenses being organized, and YES plot-based timers.  Recently in my games, I've been using/toying with the idea that long rests can ONLY occur in comfortable surroundings, such as inns or established camps in secured locations.  (Established camps typically taking like half a day to set up - and still being subject to random encounters or inclement weather).  So basically...it's not practical to long rest between travel encounters; and often impossible within hostile complexes/strongholds/dungeons (as if that was desirable before).  Exiting often results in reinforcements, undead re-animating, other stuff moving in, etc.  So there's an incentive to keep going even without some sort of external timer.  Sleeping for the night in a not-so-comfortable location still prevents a character from gaining exhaustion as a result of sleep deprivation and at least still allows a Short Rest.And of course if the PCs come up with an ingenious method of securing a location for a 5mwd, sometimes it's better to let them have it.I can't speak for other people.  But it's not something I personally consider to be fair or fun.  On either side of the DM screen.See above.  Although - sometimes intelligent foes learn from their or their minions' failures.  And sometimes powerful supernatural entities like gods or spirits with a vested interest in the PCs actions will intervene one way or another.  And sometimes I tailor details of upcoming challenges to the players strengths or weaknesses to improve what I perceive to be fun for myself and my players.  If I'm going to change things around, however, I'm going to drop clues that circumstances have changed.  Which I guess makes it NOT a rug pull.Returning to previous discussion though:  Why isn't this applicable to casters in your estimation?I do this too sometimes, I admit.  It's not entirely practical to have TOO open a sandbox.  Even so it's also important to have actual player agency.  My typical homebrew adventure design is to brainstorm a set of possible encounters that could potentially occur in a variety of circumstances, tailoring specifics to what the PCs decide to do; and outline a number of different strategy pathways that could progress the plot forward.  And, yeah, sometimes you have to scrap it all or ad lib.  And sometimes you should have seen this coming.</blockquote>

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