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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 6056040" data-attributes="member: 3400">People say a lot of things that aren't necessarily true, even if speaking from their own experience or what they read from someone else's posts on the internet.What is true is that magic can have a widespread effect on the game. Spells like fly, overland flight, and teleport can substantially change how the PCs access the environment around them. Raise dead and resurrection turn death into speed bumps rather than character enders. These are things DMs should keep in mind as PCs level up and he designs more challenges and scenarios for the PCs.That said, high level spellcasters don't dominate game sessions without key decisions being made. Some may be made innocently like making a wand of knock spells so that locks are never an obstacle. Others may be deliberate - like making a wand of knock spells so that the wizard can bypass the rogue's lockpicking skills and be the first to get to treasures locked away. Some may be made because the spellcasting player happens to like powergaming and treats maximizing his ability to neutralize the opposition as a challenge the game system presents. In any event, choices are being made that don't need to be made or that can be thought of in a different light. For example, rather than making a wand of knock spells with 50 charges, the wizard could scribe a knock scroll or two. They're still useful but are more clearly conceived of as back-up to the rogue if his skills are not up to the task rather than a primary lock picking tactic. Some may argue that it's perfectly rational to make the wand because it's cheap per charge. But it's also rational to let the rogue do it for free in the first place. Make the choice in motivation that promotes teamwork and wizards won't dominate sessions.I think you'll always see magic having a significant effect on the campaign but not all really involve dominating sessions. More powerful healing spells like heal substantially reduce the amount of downtime after or between fights. Yet it's hard to say heal enables the high level cleric to dominate a session. He significantly affects the timing and flow of an adventure but because handling the heal is a brief mechanical and supportive action, it really enables other PCs rather than takes over the session. The same is true of teleport and overland flight on the wizard side of things. Major effect on what the PCs can do and, yes, the wizard is the gatekeeper to that ability. But it doesn't lead to the wizard dominating the session's actual play time which is ultimately more important.</blockquote>

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