Sword of Spirit
Legend
Yes, it's a 1 in a 1,000 chance each time the DM has you make the roll to see if you surge (which might not even be each time you cast a spell). To me, that's a pretty acceptable risk. I'd ask the party before the campaign starts to make sure they are cool with it, but it sounds like a minor issue.
It seems to me that some people's objections are based primarily on the fact that it is based on the explicit use of a class ability and this result cannot be reasonably predicted. On the other hand, to me it seems less likely to kill the party than the rogue failing to properly disarm a nasty trap, or the fighter not choosing the right monster to protect the party from.
Perhaps the distinction is the concept that often crops up of it being okay to kill a PC if the player makes a "stupid choice," but not at other times. This personally strikes me as kind of an odd judgment call to make. Are we judging the overall mental faculties of the player and thereby punishing them because we feel that they are, as a person, just an idiot? Or are we accusing them of intentionally doing something to the detriment of the rest of the group? If not it seems like we are punishing them for a temporary lapse in judgment, which seems little different to me than being punished for a bad dice roll. It is something that can't really be reasonably prevented, and no one came into the game deciding "man I'm going to be a dumb jerk and get the party killed" anymore than they came in thinking, "I sure hope I roll poorly and blow the whole party up with a trap." (Or if they did, the issue seems a bit deeper than a one time decision, and probably should be dealt with in a different manner than punishing the players or their characters).
But back to the idea of a bad dice roll killing the party. It seems to me that you have precisely the same options regarding wild-surge as you do regarding similar situations. You can avoid putting yourself in those situations. There usually is just as much opportunity to put distance between yourself and your mage as their is to put distance between yourself and your rogue (to continue the example). If you are afraid he's going to blow up and kill your character don't stand next to him.
So to summarize, while I agree that there is a minor distinction between activating a class ability and just making a bad roll out of the blue, I think making a bad roll out of the blue is just as likely (if not moreso) to have the same effect. Some people might be uncomfortable with the direct conceptual connection "It's that stupid class feature we have to worry about!" which I suppose is a valid preference. But the class ability itself isn't really much more dangerous to the party than other abilities characters could roll poorly on (trap disarming or spotting as great examples).
It seems to me that some people's objections are based primarily on the fact that it is based on the explicit use of a class ability and this result cannot be reasonably predicted. On the other hand, to me it seems less likely to kill the party than the rogue failing to properly disarm a nasty trap, or the fighter not choosing the right monster to protect the party from.
Perhaps the distinction is the concept that often crops up of it being okay to kill a PC if the player makes a "stupid choice," but not at other times. This personally strikes me as kind of an odd judgment call to make. Are we judging the overall mental faculties of the player and thereby punishing them because we feel that they are, as a person, just an idiot? Or are we accusing them of intentionally doing something to the detriment of the rest of the group? If not it seems like we are punishing them for a temporary lapse in judgment, which seems little different to me than being punished for a bad dice roll. It is something that can't really be reasonably prevented, and no one came into the game deciding "man I'm going to be a dumb jerk and get the party killed" anymore than they came in thinking, "I sure hope I roll poorly and blow the whole party up with a trap." (Or if they did, the issue seems a bit deeper than a one time decision, and probably should be dealt with in a different manner than punishing the players or their characters).
But back to the idea of a bad dice roll killing the party. It seems to me that you have precisely the same options regarding wild-surge as you do regarding similar situations. You can avoid putting yourself in those situations. There usually is just as much opportunity to put distance between yourself and your mage as their is to put distance between yourself and your rogue (to continue the example). If you are afraid he's going to blow up and kill your character don't stand next to him.
So to summarize, while I agree that there is a minor distinction between activating a class ability and just making a bad roll out of the blue, I think making a bad roll out of the blue is just as likely (if not moreso) to have the same effect. Some people might be uncomfortable with the direct conceptual connection "It's that stupid class feature we have to worry about!" which I suppose is a valid preference. But the class ability itself isn't really much more dangerous to the party than other abilities characters could roll poorly on (trap disarming or spotting as great examples).
