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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 811243" data-attributes="member: 3146">The concern I have with this is that it seems to be dramatically tipping the scales of offense/defense. In 3.0e, it was possible (although not easy without doing cheesy duellist or monk and quintuple empowered buffing tricks) to push a character's AC to the point that he was actually difficult for a melee focussed monster or PC to hit. In 3.5e, Haste--a very significant component of that equation is effectively disappearing (+2 to hit and +2 to AC is a net of +0 to the defense instead of the net of +4 that 3.0 haste was). With 3.5e haste effecting multiple targets, it will be even rarer for PCs to be facing unhasted opponents. Consequently, it should be expected that the (already limited) popularity of defensive fighting styles (shield, heavy armor, and one handed weapon) will be even further diminished in favor of the two handed weapon or dual wield then multiclass with barbarian for rage damage maximizing fighting styles.What's more, I see this having a dramatic effect upon the viability of wizard characters. In 3.0e, it was possible for wizards to actually have a decent AC with Shield, Mage Armor, and Haste. Considering that wizards have very few spells (polymorph, and Foresight) that improve AC other than Shield, Mage Armor, Haste, and Protection from Evil, none of those spells scale with caster level, and both Shield and Haste are being nerfed (Haste into effective defensive uselessness), it seems that wizards who don't want to walk around polymorphed into trolls or hags are effectively without any way of boosting their AC past the point where the fighter's only question is "how much do I power attack?" It's already bad enough for wizards who are forced into melee (or worse yet, wizards with players foolish enough to design them to enter melee). 3.5e changes all seem to make this problem worse.Introducing more defensive spells, reducing some in level (Perhaps a limited version of Foresight at 5th level or so) or allowing existing ones to scale (perhaps shield and mage armor could increase +1/5 or 1/3 levels to a maximum of +7 and +8) would remedy the balance.</blockquote>

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