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<blockquote data-quote="Cruentus" data-source="post: 8517742" data-attributes="member: 7034645">The mechanical difference between a crossbow from a Wizard in 5e and Cantrips are that the Cantrip is superior in every way except for range: more damage (and level increase), no ammo, no range modifiers.&nbsp; So of course the crossbow seems worse in comparison, but that is the trope that Wizards have had for ever - all my Wizards in 1e and 2e were stuck with darts, daggers, and staff.&nbsp; There were no crossbows for wizards.&nbsp; Magic Missile was it until Fireball and Lightning Bolt, and we had to carefully husband those resources. In my next campaign, I'll probably use the Spell Point System, with a curated (removing encounter avoiding spells, and those that make classes superfluous) and mostly non-overlapping spell list for classes, no damage Cantrips, and Cantrips run 1 spell point per. More flexibility for Casters, maybe build in &quot;upcasting&quot; by adding more spell points to a particular cast, etc.&nbsp; Ultimately, I want magic to be more esoteric, more powerful for the caster, but more dangerous.&nbsp; Not at all the same as the fighter 'swinging his sword' and nowhere near as common.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cruentus, post: 8517742, member: 7034645"] The mechanical difference between a crossbow from a Wizard in 5e and Cantrips are that the Cantrip is superior in every way except for range: more damage (and level increase), no ammo, no range modifiers. So of course the crossbow seems worse in comparison, but that is the trope that Wizards have had for ever - all my Wizards in 1e and 2e were stuck with darts, daggers, and staff. There were no crossbows for wizards. Magic Missile was it until Fireball and Lightning Bolt, and we had to carefully husband those resources. In my next campaign, I'll probably use the Spell Point System, with a curated (removing encounter avoiding spells, and those that make classes superfluous) and mostly non-overlapping spell list for classes, no damage Cantrips, and Cantrips run 1 spell point per. More flexibility for Casters, maybe build in "upcasting" by adding more spell points to a particular cast, etc. Ultimately, I want magic to be more esoteric, more powerful for the caster, but more dangerous. Not at all the same as the fighter 'swinging his sword' and nowhere near as common. [/QUOTE]

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