Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ZombieRoboNinja" data-source="post: 5966819" data-attributes="member: 54843">An old argument that got brought up in the most recent Rule-of-Three article is how to balance traditional Vancian-style casters (with daily spells) against classes with mostly at-will or encounter powers. The problem is that those classes tend to &quot;go nova&quot; and blow all their spells every encounter, and then either sit on their butts or demand a rest. (Thus the 15-minute adventuring day.)Here's a quick and obvious fix: let wizards get daily spells a la 3e, but they can only cast X spells without taking a short rest to recover. (I.e., only x spells per encounter.)X would need to be playtested, but maybe Con mod + 1/3 level (minimum 2)?That way the wizard can still ration out his spells however he wants (blowing all his high-level spells early) but still has SOME daily resources later on.Similar adjustments could be made for other non-Vancian classes, obviously: psions can only spend Y magic points without a short rest, for example. Offhand, this seems like an option that would preserve the &quot;feel&quot; of Vancian casters while solving a balance problem. It's very easy to justify plotwise, too: spellcasting is tiring, and even if you have a bunch of spells memorized, you can't just rattle off 40 in a row without a break. I honestly can't think of many wizard/cleric battles, even in D&amp;D novels, that wouldn't fit in this new mechanic: even if Elminster can spellcast nonstop for 100 pages, well, he's like level 40.What do people think?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ZombieRoboNinja, post: 5966819, member: 54843"] An old argument that got brought up in the most recent Rule-of-Three article is how to balance traditional Vancian-style casters (with daily spells) against classes with mostly at-will or encounter powers. The problem is that those classes tend to "go nova" and blow all their spells every encounter, and then either sit on their butts or demand a rest. (Thus the 15-minute adventuring day.) Here's a quick and obvious fix: let wizards get daily spells a la 3e, but they can only cast X spells without taking a short rest to recover. (I.e., only x spells per encounter.) X would need to be playtested, but maybe Con mod + 1/3 level (minimum 2)? That way the wizard can still ration out his spells however he wants (blowing all his high-level spells early) but still has SOME daily resources later on. Similar adjustments could be made for other non-Vancian classes, obviously: psions can only spend Y magic points without a short rest, for example. Offhand, this seems like an option that would preserve the "feel" of Vancian casters while solving a balance problem. It's very easy to justify plotwise, too: spellcasting is tiring, and even if you have a bunch of spells memorized, you can't just rattle off 40 in a row without a break. I honestly can't think of many wizard/cleric battles, even in D&D novels, that wouldn't fit in this new mechanic: even if Elminster can spellcast nonstop for 100 pages, well, he's like level 40. What do people think? [/QUOTE]

Verification