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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7832394" data-attributes="member: 996">OK, good.  I want to be helpful, but I /need/ to understand the issue.OK, so a lower at-will baseline.I don't see lowering casters' at-will baseline to be making anyone more or less awesome.  But, for purposes of this discussion, I'll accept that's how you feel about it, and part of the reasoning of the objective, sure.    So, Ki, which is magic, but not spells, is OK, but a problem, when modeled by spells, as in the case of the shadow & elemental options.  Maneuvers/CS dice, though, are fine?  Rage, I assume, as well.  OK, that's an additional layer beyond what I was considering, above. So by spell-equivalence, you mean an ability that is modeled by the mechanics of an actual spell, called out as such. Not just something that uses MM's spell-damage/healing formulae for rough balance? For me, personally, my conception of magic vs not-magic, given my experiences (that I also assume we didn't share) with /other games/ that weren't D&D,as far back as, oh '84, I guess, like Champions! and Fantasy Hero, is that the critical difference is not what they accomplish nor how often, but /how/ they operate, how they look, and how they interact.So, wand of fireballs with six charges and grenade launcher with six WP grenades might both do fire damage in an area down range, six times before you go back to your home base to recharge them, but one's magic and one's not.  Dispel Magic makes no impression on a grenade, white phosphorus won't stick to an intangible spectre "hit only by magic."I was just trying to understand your perspective:  that the /scarcity/ of magic was part of what made it magical.  And thus come up with options that might deliver what you were after.  (And, in D&D, limited-uses /are/ consistently compensated with greater power, and especially in the case of spells, versatility... and, yeah, that combination makes them more important, as well, especially in terms of the decision to use or not use them, so that seemed an important aspect).But, if it's not mainly about scarcity, then, say it's fine for a Barbarian to Rage 1/day, plenty scarce, but not magical? ...So, not scarcity = magic, but scarcity = specialness in some other way?Spells are special, because scarcity - undercut by Cantrips.Rage is special, because scarcity.CS dice are special, because scarcity.Ki is special, because scarcity.(Heck, HD must be fairly special, too - they're the only resource that recovers even slower than slots.)Have I got a better grasp of it, now?If so, then, yeah, I guess changing the Bard into an at-will aura-singer wouldn't really be what you're looking for.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /></blockquote>

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