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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 688504" data-attributes="member: 158">KrunchyFrogg:Believe me, the lack of effectiveness is all in preconceived notion. Having played several Wizards and Clerics in 3E by now, I can honestly say that it's in the presentation. First of all, a group that thinks ONLY in terms of hitting and healing is missing out on tactics far too effective to mention. The lowly spell protection from elements can protect a character from scores of points of elemental damage. Facing a wyrmling Black Dragon? a small fire elemental? An enemy wizard with penchant for shocking grasp or burning hands? All of these are useful. Even simple travel from the wilderness can be aided by this one spell. Need to slay an orc before he threatens the fighter's flank? Inflict light wounds is a TOUCH attack that can kill the average orc dead in one shot.Clerics can do more to undead than turn them. With magic stone, they can blow them apart. Heck, even the cure light wounds so lamented, can SLAP DOWN that pesky zombie or ghoul that threatens the party with certain death, if all your turns are used. I've helped more party members with Doom, Bless, and Magic Weapon than I can count. I can personally count on one hand the number of times the party was rescued from near disaster with a well-placed magic weapon or bless spell.ANY PARTY THAT TELLS ITS CLERICS TO "SAVE THEIR SPELLS" IS DOING IT THE HARD WAY.Arcane casters are no less effective. Magic missle is a great spell - at 5th level and higher. But why on earth would a caster waste it at 1st or 2nd? Color Spray (which you mentioned), sleep, shocking grasp (the wizard's inflict light wounds), and MAGE armor (yes, mage armor) can be a major boon to beleaguered parties. Every monk in our parties has a good relationship with the arcane casters - because mage armor is gold to a low-level monk.Must EVERYTHING be taken down with direct damage? How about ensuring the hit never happened? Outlasting the enemy if you can't deal enough damage to take them out quickly? Then the focus changes. If a DM of a group does not offer any other varieties of challenges than direct melee combat, then indeed the party is going to force itself into a mold that works best to take it down, and they will stick with the same tactics again and again because they do not wish to experiment with different ones, to find something more effective.</blockquote>

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