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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7114041" data-attributes="member: 12731">Hmm. There are actually quite a few things to keep in mind in situations like these. First and foremost - 5th edition adventures don't (should not) assume ANY spellcasters in the party. We've come a long away from the "classic" party where every party was assumed to have *at least* one arcane spellcaster and one divine spellcaster.(That said, as long as the adventure is upfront with a need for spellcasting, and provides an alternative means to cast said spells - such as a NPC Mage or Priest for hire - this shouldn't be a huge problem. Most parties do contain several spellcasters, if for no other reason than EVERYBODY except a few subclasses is a spellcaster in 5E!)On the other hand, allow physical attacks to work as well, and you might well see physical attacks REPLACING spellcasting. After all, swinging your sword is free - you don't have a limited number of sword swings per day. So take care or you end up with the spellcasters saving all their spells.So the middle way is clear: allowing alternatives to spellcasting is good, since you can't assume any spellcasters. But these alternatives need to be rather expensive or difficult, or the spellcasters might simply save their spells.In summary:* just Arcana checks or Charisma checks needs to be a very slow process, or alternatively a dangerous one. Either have unlimited mook waves to make the party hurry up, or place guardians and have one appear/animate/reassemble each time you fail a check. (While parties with many fighters and no casters will have more difficulty making Arcana checks, at least they are better suited to actually fighting these guardians)* DR (damage reduction/hardness) is problematic. It means the best fighter (the one with the greataxe and GWM feat) needs to be tied down to hacking the spheres and the others will have to deal with the mooks. But this character would probably love to fight the mooks, while the skill monkey would probably love to tinker with the spheres!One alternative (suitable for a mid-level party): Say you need 30 spell levels total (to shut down the spheres), but you have few casters. How about allowing characters to expend their "life energy" by reaching into the spheres, which will cause them damage and pain. This works when you don't want to spend any spell slots, but it is slower and for some players there is a roleplaying cost in taking all that pain and damage.Now, 30 spell levels can be done quickly - just cast four level 5 spells and a few low-level spells and you're done. It's possible to do this in as little as two rounds.But if you do it the hard way, each round you (that thrust your hand into the sphere) lose one Hit Die, and you take d12 damage, and you must make a DC 10 Constitution save or be hurled 10 ft backwards and effectively become Frightened (per the condition) of the spheres (DC 15 Will save at end of each round) and it only counts as 1d3 spell levels. Once you're out of hit dice, you take a level of exhaustion instead.This means roughly two hit dice per 2 spell levels, and 30 hit dice total. That is sure to drain a four-man level 8 party quite significantly - they have exactly 32 HD among them - but it can provide a tense and exiting scene. Even if the mooks aren't particularly dangerous, they don't have to be when every single hit point counts! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ZappPS. Be sure to make the mook guardians "soulless" (undead, golems, elementals etc) or your smart players are bound to shove *them* into the spheres instead!</blockquote>

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