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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 6348022" data-attributes="member: 87792">Not&nbsp; always true.&nbsp; The trick is to work out what the monster's plan will be&nbsp; and be one step ahead of them.&nbsp; Grabbing multiple groups of enemies&nbsp; before breaking out the AoE works.Yup.Say&nbsp; living rather than humanoid.&nbsp; There are few powers that differentiate&nbsp; between humans, dogs, and rats.&nbsp; In short unless it's Undead Fest...&nbsp;&nbsp; This drives me up the wall.&nbsp; But in this case&nbsp; terrain is the casters' best friend.&nbsp; With the weakness of AoOs in 3.X,&nbsp; walls are the main thing preventing smart monsters with a ruthless DM&nbsp; from gutting the mage.&nbsp; In other words a Paizo AP - or probably the most common style of play in 3.XAnd there goes the Hexcrawl. Hexcrawls are a gift to casters.&nbsp; One hex explored per day.Basically&nbsp; by now you've cut out just about everything except hard core dungeon&nbsp; crawling - something that was the 3.0 tagline but was in full retreat by&nbsp; the time 3.5 was published.Mage Armour only has a very limited level range of usefulness (especially when Twilight was added in the BoED and readded in the PHB2).&nbsp; I've never had a caster prepare Shield.1XP per first level scroll.&nbsp; This is trivial.That was a weak argument in 3.0.&nbsp; In 3.5 <a href="http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1077406" target="_blank">XP is a river</a>.Which probably lowers the&nbsp; survivability of wizards to be honest. Because a tournament group faces&nbsp; enemies playing hardball -the 3.X power imbalance tends to ensure they&nbsp; don't.And eventually the fighters take a crit.I think the&nbsp; Artificer/Bard/Druid party I was part of was pretty close to optimal.&nbsp;&nbsp; Especially when we were able to hit enemy encampments at a run, all with&nbsp; Bane weapons and some ridiculous singing buffs.A 5th level 3.X specialist wizard&nbsp; or cleric has a dozen spells (plus cantrips).&nbsp; That's in my experience&nbsp; normally enough if you don't burn wastefully (novas are generally bad&nbsp; play) and if the minor fights are handled by beating things over the&nbsp; head.&nbsp; (By comparison a 5th level 1e wizard had six spells and most of those were DM-determined).&nbsp; The 18 spells at 7th level is definitely ahead, and I think the 12 at 5th is.&nbsp; First, no the cleric doesn't have to,&nbsp; Most do.&nbsp; And fighters who dump Wis get mind controlled.Second,&nbsp; yes, the cleric normally heals the fighter.&nbsp; But that just means that&nbsp; the fighter isn't bringing the resilience - the cleric is and only a&nbsp; cursory glance misattributes this to the fighter.If&nbsp; you're casting CLW in combat you're already in trouble.&nbsp; CLW is best&nbsp; used after the battle (and that was another vast change 3.0 made by&nbsp; accident - the easily creatable Wand of Cure Light Wounds freeing up the&nbsp; cleric's spells).Oh, indeed.&nbsp; Doesn't mean that that was why the rules were there.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 6348022, member: 87792"] Not always true. The trick is to work out what the monster's plan will be and be one step ahead of them. Grabbing multiple groups of enemies before breaking out the AoE works. Yup. Say living rather than humanoid. There are few powers that differentiate between humans, dogs, and rats. In short unless it's Undead Fest... This drives me up the wall. But in this case terrain is the casters' best friend. With the weakness of AoOs in 3.X, walls are the main thing preventing smart monsters with a ruthless DM from gutting the mage. In other words a Paizo AP - or probably the most common style of play in 3.X And there goes the Hexcrawl. Hexcrawls are a [I]gift[/I] to casters. One hex explored per day. Basically by now you've cut out just about everything except hard core dungeon crawling - something that was the 3.0 tagline but was in full retreat by the time 3.5 was published. Mage Armour only has a very limited level range of usefulness (especially when [I]Twilight[/I] was added in the BoED and readded in the PHB2). I've never had a caster prepare [I]Shield[/I]. 1XP per first level scroll. This is trivial. That was a weak argument in 3.0. In 3.5 [URL="http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1077406"]XP is a river[/URL]. Which probably lowers the survivability of wizards to be honest. Because a tournament group faces enemies playing hardball -the 3.X power imbalance tends to ensure they don't. And eventually the fighters take a crit. I think the Artificer/Bard/Druid party I was part of was pretty close to optimal. Especially when we were able to hit enemy encampments at a run, all with [I]Bane[/I] weapons and some ridiculous singing buffs. A 5th level 3.X specialist wizard or cleric has a dozen spells (plus cantrips). That's in my experience normally enough if you don't burn wastefully (novas are generally bad play) and if the minor fights are handled by beating things over the head. (By comparison a 5th level 1e wizard had [I]six[/I] spells and most of those were DM-determined). The 18 spells at 7th level is [I]definitely[/I] ahead, and I think the 12 at 5th is. First, no the cleric doesn't have to, Most do. And fighters who dump Wis get mind controlled. Second, yes, the cleric normally heals the fighter. But that just means that the fighter isn't bringing the resilience - the cleric is and only a cursory glance misattributes this to the fighter. If you're casting CLW in combat you're already in trouble. CLW is best used after the battle (and that was another vast change 3.0 made by accident - the easily creatable Wand of Cure Light Wounds freeing up the cleric's spells). Oh, indeed. Doesn't mean that that was why the rules were there. [/QUOTE]

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