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<blockquote data-quote="airwalkrr" data-source="post: 5483312" data-attributes="member: 12460">With regards to 3rd edition only, there is a fairly neat fix which helps balance magic immensely. All spells have a minimum 1 round casting time. (Only a select few like feather fall are exceptions.) This means that on the wizard's turn, he starts casting, and the spell isn't completed until the following round. With this rule, you don't even need to worry about whether spells provoke attacks of opportunity. Everyone who is acting gets a chance to disrupt the casting if they like, and the harder they hit, the harder a time the wizard is going to have getting the spell off.I've actually run 3e with this rule myself for the last six months. I think it works incredibly well at balancing out casters. Every monster who doesn't know how to do magic knows that magic is very powerful and panics whenever they see a caster about to lay down the hurt. They naturally want to stop that caster at all costs. That leaves the more &quot;mundane&quot; characters with the duty of protecting the caster until the spell is completed.To give casters a more reliable, but costlier method of getting their spells cast, wands and scrolls take standard actions to activate. That means if it is absolutely imperative that you get that magic missile spell off, you whip out the wand.Now this does very little to limit &quot;hyper-buffing&quot; or utility spells, but it does dramatically impact the way casters can affect battles. The worst-case scenario is that fighters, rogues, and their ilk feel marginalized because they see themselves as lackeys forced to defend the casters. But seen in a more positive light, this is known as &quot;teamwork&quot; and is very positive for a roleplaying game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="airwalkrr, post: 5483312, member: 12460"] With regards to 3rd edition only, there is a fairly neat fix which helps balance magic immensely. [B][COLOR="Red"]All spells have a minimum 1 round casting time.[/COLOR][/B] (Only a select few like feather fall are exceptions.) This means that on the wizard's turn, he starts casting, and the spell isn't completed until the following round. With this rule, you don't even need to worry about whether spells provoke attacks of opportunity. Everyone who is acting gets a chance to disrupt the casting if they like, and the harder they hit, the harder a time the wizard is going to have getting the spell off. I've actually run 3e with this rule myself for the last six months. I think it works incredibly well at balancing out casters. Every monster who doesn't know how to do magic knows that magic is very powerful and panics whenever they see a caster about to lay down the hurt. They naturally want to stop that caster at all costs. That leaves the more "mundane" characters with the duty of protecting the caster until the spell is completed. To give casters a more reliable, but costlier method of getting their spells cast, wands and scrolls take standard actions to activate. That means if it is absolutely imperative that you get that magic missile spell off, you whip out the wand. Now this does very little to limit "hyper-buffing" or utility spells, but it does dramatically impact the way casters can affect battles. The worst-case scenario is that fighters, rogues, and their ilk feel marginalized because they see themselves as lackeys forced to defend the casters. But seen in a more positive light, this is known as "teamwork" and is very positive for a roleplaying game. [/QUOTE]

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