D&D 5E Limiting use of cantrips - what are the consequences?

[bedir than]

I think the OP is confusing a game rule, with how the game world might work. There is no direct correlation. The player rules are not a simulation of the game physics. You cannot infer the rest of existence from the PHB. Having a cantrip be unlimited does not necessarily mean that a caster can continually cast it, once every six seconds, forever. Maybe it does; that's for the DM (and players) to decide. What it does mean is that you are free to dispense with the minutia of tracking usages of cantrips. You've got enough of them for the foreseeable game day, however long that may be.

One could also do this kind of hand-wavey aspect that says "don't abuse the rules" without actually tracking it. Whatever suits your table and feel.

 

[MoonSong]

if tracers can provide illumination how would a magical bolt of fire do less?

Because there is a cantrip specifically for that ? Wizards being short on cantrips is a balancing factor, allowing cantrips to do the job of other cantrips removes that limit.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Tracers are a lot more frequent than every six seconds. You can use a strobe light for illumination, but it's not effective if its only strobing every six seconds. You need to increase the rate before it's useful.

It's the every six seconds that's the problem with using fire bolt for illumination. Now, if you use fire bolt to set something on fire, everything's fine...and you won't need to spam fire bolts. Either way, spamming fire bolts isn't an effective way to provide illumination

 

[The Human Target]

let's work with a simple one.

What in the rules prevents a PC with unlimited cantrips from casting Fire Bolt as a light source?

Common sense and the rules?

 

[dracomilan]

To limit the impact of cantrips in a low magic settings you can also rule that to gain the level dependent benefits (eg: increased damage) you have to cast them using a first level spell slot.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I introduced cantrips to B/X and limited the daily use to INT score + level. INT can be replaced with the appropriate casting stat for other classes. This gives increased capacity with level, a good number of uses, but at enough of a cost to make one carefully consider the expenditure before doing any gratuitous spamming.

 

[Ranthalan]

I limited cantrips in my campaign because it was just getting boring. The only thing the warlock ever did was cast Eldritch Blast. (Eldritch Blast is too powerful for a cantrip, IMO) The cleric had some decent weapons but it never made sense to use them. The players and I talked about it, because there are definite balance issues, especially with the warlock.

We came up with the following rule: The number of cantrips a character can cast will be limited to the character's level + spell attack modifier. This resets when the character's spell slots reset. (You can think of this as level 0 spell slots.)

So the warlock's cantrips reset on a short rest. I wanted something that increases with level, but also wanted to give more of an advantage to the traditional magic using classes. The party also has an arcane trickster, and the thought of a rogue casting spells every turn never sat well with me. (I'm unapologetically old school.) It's worked well for us. Cantrips are limited without feeling constrained.

YMMV

 

[abirdcall]

Do people who play in games where cantrips are being cast every 6 seconds allow all characters to continually do other actions non-stop as well? Like taking down a castle with a mace or dashing every 'turn' for travel, etc.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

let's work with a simple one.

What in the rules prevents a PC with unlimited cantrips from casting Fire Bolt as a light source?

The "The DM shouldn't be stupid" one. 5E is written from a conversational perspective. It assumes a non-antagonistic relationship between player and DM, and gives a lot of authority to the DM. It assumes the DM is capable of reading a description, and extrapolating how it works in the game world.

In this case, shooting a beam of fire in the air means there's a brief whoosh (that goes SOMEWHERE, potentially causing a fire), providing a moment of illumination, unless it lights something on fire. In which case, great, you spent as lot of time in wizard school to avoid carrying matches and spend your action continually firebolting in order to see in a strobe effect. SO much better than carrying a torch! So OP we clearly need to cram in a house rule!

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

To limit the impact of cantrips in a low magic settings you can also rule that to gain the level dependent benefits (eg: increased damage) you have to cast them using a first level spell slot.

Dont play D&D in low magic settings. When you bend the laws of physics more often than you poop, it's never going to be low magic. Letting PC casters in a low magic world is a recipe for disaster, because the world isnt equipped to deal with the equivalent of a superhero.