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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3193299" data-attributes="member: 2067">If your complaint is about the % chance mechanically, then you can gripe about concealment, too. And I believe they largely exist for the same reasons: so that even at high level, they are still very relevant.If you're saying that arcanists get hosed because they just have a random failure chance instead of something like a non-proficiency penalty, regardless of what feats they pick up, I'll point you back at the reasons that they likely did that: the robed wizard archetype, the fact that most wizards shouldn't really need armor anyway, and the fact that wizards represent the design extreme of a Paper Tiger, so they must be very powerful in one area and weak in most others. Well, in-character, the explanation is "detailed, expansive, complex somatic gestures that are required for arcane spells that are not required for divine spells." Complete Mage has a few in-character theories for why this might be, such as divine spells are entrusted by a force, but arcane spells must be pulled from reality by the caster herself.Out-of-character, it's an archetype thing, a balance thing, and a need thing. Merlin didn't need mortal metal, and Gandalf never wielded a shield. Wizards and Sorcerers are supposed to be "soft" targets for most effects. And melee is usually a sub-optimal choice.As for the ranged attacks...For ranged attacks, wizards have access to things like invisibility, entropic shield, and even taking mundane cover or "soft cover" behind the fighters. And unless something has 20' reach, you can get off those rays and orbs from a pretty "safe" distance, at least as far as putting a meat shield between you and your target is concerned. You don't always have a fighter between you and the enemy, but usually you will, and it is a tactical descision that is really encouraged.It makes sense from those three perspectives alone. There's no disconnect in allowing Clerics to cast in armor, but not allowing Wizards, Bards, Sorcerers, and the like. I'm willing to bet the *strongest* reason is archetype. Wizards rarely get their own hands dirty. They hire adventurers for that. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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