[L&L] Balancing the Wizards in D&D

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Everyone,

Some excellent suggestions here:

Article (Balancing Wizards in D&D)

I think the final point of creativity over dominance however, was the most important for me. This is as crucial to uniting the editions as is square-rooting the quadratic wizard. I think they are on the right path.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Jack99]

Spells are dangerous is what I was hoping for - at least it goes some of the way. I am a bit leery about the non-scaling spells though.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

less powerful wizzards with at will cantrips sounds AWSOME... but no rituel mentioned...

I wonder if we are going to see something like

max spell level 1/2 level, number of spells per day equal to caster level no more then 3 per level

so a level 10 wizard would have 10 spells per day max of 5th level, so he could prep 3 5th, 3 4th, 3 3rd, 1 2nd.

or

a level 6 wizard/4 fighter can still cast 5th level spells but only has 6 per day, so 3 5th, 3 4th


Maybe they take my idea of spell levels preped, equal to 2x caster level and highest spell level is equal to 1/2 level

so a level 10 wizard has 20 level max of 5th level, so he could prep 4 5th level spells, or 3 5th and 1 3rd and 1 2nd, or 20 1st level, or any other combo of 20 levels...

but again...

but no rituel mentioned...

why no rituels... please tell me it is an over sight... Imagin Identfy, and scry and legend lore as rituels...or Planar binding

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Spells are dangerous is what I was hoping for - at least it goes some of the way. I am a bit leery about the non-scaling spells though.

remeber we have assumed (yea I know what that makes u and me) that it was no auto scaleing, but built in metamagic.

fireball 5d6 at 3rd, +2d6 per higher level, so prep it as a 9th level spell and it becomes 17D6

 

[UngeheuerLich]

L&L: Balancing Wizards

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Balancing Wizards in D&D)

Those are great design goals.

I especially like the inclusion of "damage makes your next non-at will spell harder to cast."

The remaining points are also very reasonable.

A funny thing:
Right now in 4e I have introduced spell scrolls, because I play an ADnD adventure. And to balance them, I allow them to be cast either as a ritual, or by expending an equal level spell slot.

 

[Raith5]

Interesting. Not sure I disagree with much here. At will magic seems to be prominent.

I like the downplaying of buffs. I still wake up from nightmares from DMing a third ed group that used haste and stoneskin a lot.

Also it indicated that fighters have iterative attacks: "Haste might grant extra attacks, but at a penalty that makes the fighter's ability to attack multiple times come out ahead". Is that a new bit of info?

 

[GX.Sigma]

The thing he said about spell slots is interesting. It sounds like you'll have a number of slots, and a maximum number of spells prepared of each level, but that those won't be the same number. For example, a level 5 wizard might be able to prepare up to 4 1st-level spells, up to 3 2nd-level spells, and up to 1 3rd-level spell, but can only prepare a total of 5 spells per day. So you don't have a rigid number of slots of each level, but more of a loose thing. Interesting to see how that'll work.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

but again...

but no rituel mentioned...

why no rituels... please tell me it is an over sight... Imagin Identfy, and scry and legend lore as rituels...or Planar binding

I agree that there are some really cool repercussions from separating out rituals from spells that can be cast. I really hope that rituals make an appearance but at this stage, it is not going to be core (although perhaps the way to connect the core to a rituals module is by basically defining that any spell with a duration 1 minute or greater is called a ritual). Let's wait and see.

Another thing for me is wands as storage devices (even if limited to certain spells) but that is another thread. It's weird but I think I prefer the Harry Potter (no snark by the way) idea of wand as implement over wand as spell storage.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[hafrogman]

Another thing for me is wands as storage devices (even if limited to certain spells) but that is another thread. It's weird but I think I prefer the Harry Potter (no snark by the way) idea of wand as implement over wand as spell storage.

The idea of reworking spell-use magical items, combined with changing how spell scaling works, also leads me to consider a third option.

It might be an interesting idea if wands (or perhaps staves or rods) increased the slot level of a certain spell by 1 (or to a certain max level or something). So the base fireball might be 5d6, prepare it at 4th and get 7d6 . . . but with a wand of fireball, your third level fireballs scale.

 

[RangerWickett]

If you get access to some at-will magic, hell, I'd be fine playing a high level wizard who just has five powerful once-per-day spells, as long as they get the balance right. Let me telekinetically shove folks and zap them with magic missiles so I can be useful, but then occasionally bust out the "shatter a castle wall" or "have your shadow kill you" type magic.

Make the wizard clever but less damaging than fighters on a round-by-round basis, with occasional spurts of novaing. That's what I'd like. This article makes me excited.