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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 3863790" data-attributes="member: 704">Consider Fireball, and an Encounter with 341 Orcs.If Fireball is once per Encounter, you can take out about 20 or so Orcs when you use it.  That leaves you with 321 Orcs to deal with, and you are now limited to using your other spells / abilities to kill them.If Fireball is at Will, you are essentially able to decimate the army if you can maintain a reasonable distance without ever having to use any other feat or ability.For balance reasons, it makes sense to have low impact abilities as At Will, your 'standard option' abilities have a Per Encounter limit, and to have your Best Option with a per day limit.For an analog to 3rd edition options, consider the following abilities.  The following is based on my opinion, and is entirely subjective.Ok as At Will abilities:Standard Melee AttackAny CantripEvasionUncanny DodgeOk as Per Encounter Abilities:Barbarian RageBard SongStunning FistScorching RayBuff SpellsAn Automatic Critical Hit (declared before an attack roll)An Automatic non Critical hit (skip attack roll, just roll damage, no critical possible)Guaranteed Sneak Attack (declared before attack roll, target takes sneak attack damage even if not flatfooted or flanked, absent uncanny dodge)"Do Over".  (make an attack that hit become a miss, or make a save you just failed)Ok as Per Day AbilitiesHeal SpellWish SpellAutomatic Coup-de-Grace (even if target not helpless, declared before attack roll)An All Day Buff SpellTeleport type spellsInstant 20 (take 20 on non combat roll as an instant / standard action rather than taking hours)Free Meta Magic (apply a meta magic feat to an otherwise normal spell)Tis But a Scratch (Fight normally until -20 hp)Not Quite Dead (restore all hp as a full round action)To put it more simply:Any ability that cannot really decide the outcome of a level appropriate fight by its self at the present level:  At WillAny ability that is a 'no brainer' to use, even if not super powerful:  Per EncounterAny save or 'screwed' (as in may as well be dead, such as Hold Person):  Per EncounterAny ability that can render the user effectively unkillable if used without limit:  Per DayAny ability that the player would want to use first thing in every encounter if possible:  Per DayEND COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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