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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 9181946" data-attributes="member: 996">Components aren't much of a balancing factor in 5e, even in TSR D&amp;D, they were more of an ineffectual balance-thru-tedium factor which, as has been discussed recently around here, isn't much of a balance.&nbsp; 1e did make casting spells pretty inconvenient, you needed both hands, had to be standing up rather than crouching behind cover or moving around, etc.. and no armor, for magic-users, of course - the actual rules on interrupting spells were not at all clear (and there were commonly used alt initiative systems), but casters tended to just stay out of melee as much as possible, IMX.If you want to try to balance the power/versatility of spells by restoring limitations on them, bringing back AoOs for casting, and requiring concentration to cast all spells might do a little something - it wouldn't make casters actually squishy, but it'd make them wish that fighters actually were good at protecting them.You could do away with spontaneous casting for prepped casters like the wizard and Cleric, which cuts down their versatility a bit (though they're still ultimately more versatile than known/spontaneous casters), that's rolling them back to 3e, which, I mean, think about it.Ultimately balancing casters with restrictions is something that earlier editions tried much, much harder than 5e, and it didn't ever work well - it made playing casters un-fun for more players, and it didn't much restrain the abuse of spells by those who learned to work around it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 9181946, member: 996"] Components aren't much of a balancing factor in 5e, even in TSR D&D, they were more of an ineffectual balance-thru-tedium factor which, as has been discussed recently around here, isn't much of a balance. 1e did make casting spells pretty inconvenient, you needed both hands, had to be standing up rather than crouching behind cover or moving around, etc.. and no armor, for magic-users, of course - the actual rules on interrupting spells were not at all clear (and there were commonly used alt initiative systems), but casters tended to just stay out of melee as much as possible, IMX. If you want to try to balance the power/versatility of spells by restoring limitations on them, bringing back AoOs for casting, and requiring concentration to cast all spells might do a little something - it wouldn't make casters actually squishy, but it'd make them wish that fighters actually were good at protecting them. You could do away with spontaneous casting for prepped casters like the wizard and Cleric, which cuts down their versatility a bit (though they're still ultimately more versatile than known/spontaneous casters), that's rolling them back to 3e, which, I mean, think about it. Ultimately balancing casters with restrictions is something that earlier editions tried much, much harder than 5e, and it didn't ever work well - it made playing casters un-fun for more players, and it didn't much restrain the abuse of spells by those who learned to work around it. [/QUOTE]

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