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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dvvega" data-source="post: 1987854" data-attributes="member: 524">Throughout this whole discussion, I've not seen one post as to why the wizard/player does not cast defensively instead of doing the whole bluff thing.Most wizards who intend to be casting in combat have a good Concentration score (purely on ranks, they normally have them maxed out).Since there was no mention of the wizard's level, let us assume they are 5th (fireball available).Two wizards, average stats except for INT. Both wish to cast Fireball without AOO.Wizard 1: maxed out Concentration (8 ranks). Requires a 10 on his Concentration roll to avoid AOO. Will not take any damage from the casting.Wizard 2: uses this tactic. Requires nothing to avoid AOO for his fireball. Will take damage from the casting (the first spell draws out the attacks).Neither seems to have a decided advantage above the other. To make himself "immune" to the damage from the arrows, Wizard 2 is going to need Protection from Arrows, Stoneskin, or some other DR spell. He is using another spell to make the plan work. With these spells he could just cast away, draw AOOs, take no damage, and cast safely after a basic Concentration check of DC10.Of course if he has no concentration, Wizard 2 needs some other way to avoid the problem (hence the tactic).The tactic in and of itself is great. Any trained, intelligent wizard would weigh up his chances and decide what to do.What I don't agree about this tactic is: * a 0-level spell should not have this ability. * In and of itself the spell was harmless (at initial appearance), however the DM obviously didn't think far enough ahead along the chain of thought that the player had. * <sarcasm>Congratulations to the player for tricking his DM</sarcasm>. Instead of removing/banning the cantrip, the DM should just state that "no cantrip may cause a significant distraction that a season combatant will be affected". That way the player gets his "Screw U" spell, but doesn't gain the benefit he had envisioned.As for the Feather Fall replacement idea, the guy isn't falling, so my personal DM ruling would be "I'm sorry but you're not falling so its trigger has not been met". He can of course go and expend a quickened 1st level spell, or use a metamagic rod or what have you. But he's going to have to use resources to make it work. That would achieve a nice synergy - give and take - about the tactic. Make up for the benefit of the standard Wizard.As to the topic of metagaming: everyone does it at some stage. Even the DM, inherently, is metagaming when he states that all his trained combatants know to hold for Wizards. What is a wizard in his world? Do they all wear Point Hats of Wizardry (TM)? How do they know it is a wizard?For example in one region of my world, Wizardry is highly stylised and training is accomplished in government sanctioned guilds. Wizards must wear a specific outfit in public and wouldn't be seen dead in anything else. The advantages to this are the fear factor. Most people who recognise the robes are in awe of the wizard. Of course it makes them a target as well. However other regions do not have these regulations, so a wizard could dress as a stable boy and no one would figure it out until the first fireball was launched.I can sympathise with KarinsDad when he argues that it is metagaming because it is a way to avoid all the perils of spell casting, however to avoid them all the Wizard would need at least 3 spells cast: the 0-level, the spell he wants to cast, a defensive spell (Protection from Arrows). To the DM, there have been many solutions given out as to how you can "screw" the player for his methods. My suggestion is to simply not allow Feather Fall to qualify for the quickened casting effect unless he is actually falling, and ruling that all 0-level spells can't distract people. This way, he is going to have to use some other spell to pull off his tactic. You are not negating his tactics this way, you are encouraging clever play, however you are setting a price to pay for bypassing rules and tricking the DM. The price here is either a metamagic rod or a quickened 1st level spell.D</blockquote>

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