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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 5884696" data-attributes="member: 17106">Wait, what? Balance is between all characters (P and NP). Why would there be any distinction here?Yes, D&D wizards have too many spells and cast them too easily. That's not a fundamental flaw in game design, though. Wizards with fewer spells or more restrictions (but with all the classic spells that let you do things that fighters can't) would be the best solution. In a slight tangent, what's with the Gygax references? I've never read anything he wrote and I know nothing about him. To me, quoting Gygax is a bit like a psychologist quoting Freud; sure there's some interesting historical context, but the field is far removed from where it started. But let's see what he was to say:Okay, yes. Again, there is a problem with unrestrained magic, but the fact that wizards and fighters operate off of a different platform and have different capabilities is not a problem. I'm all for reigning in characters in sensible ways. Again, there's two types of balance, one of which I think is reasonable, the other of which I think has caused problems.Magic is definitely too easy to access, but that doesn't mean that shapechange/glitterdust/teleport/disintegrate/wish are the problem. Wizards should be able to do those things and fighters not, but wizards don't need to have so much at their disposal and pay so little in return. There were a fair amount of silly SR-ignoring spells, mostly in supplements, but I think that with a sensible banning or reruling of those (noncore) elements, SR is a huge factor in high-level play. And while there isn't one "answer" to magic, the "mutually assured destruction" factor of truly powerful casters has been and should continue to be important.Ah, polymorph. Short answer: changing into a wyvern is not overpowered, but things quickly get out of control when you choose regenerating forms or those with powerful natural attacks and so on. Polymorph spells are ridiculously imbalaced because you can cherry-pick the best abilities out of an entire edition's worth of monsters. The thing is, achieving that imbalance consistently does require a lot of bookkeeping (transforming your stats), research, and thus conscious intent by a player to really break things.For the record, I once played a shifter, and found a ridiculously optimized (giant squid) form, which completely dominated the game. Afterwards, everyone just steered clear of polymorph because they knew it was cheese. I've used it as a DM on occasion for plot-specific reasons.The point is that this is one of a few truly game-breaking spells. There are hundreds if not thousands of 3.X spells, so it's a given that some are game-breaking. When I consider the power of wizards, I do not consider the top 5% or so of spells, on the expectation that most DM's and/or players know that they are overpowered and do not use them. This issue happens mostly with casters, because casters get such a variety of spells compared to the limited number of class abilities and feats other characters get. But it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with a wizard using the other 95% of spells that are not broken.</blockquote>

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