Seriously? Spellcasters will not be able to have many spell choices?

[Hussar]

Wizards will be very much like sorcerers. They have a set of per day, per encounter (power words) and at will abilities that they can select. (How long this list is and if they can change this selection on a day by day basis or only when leveling up I don't know).

Also it seems to me that all of those powers will revolve around direct combat (damage dealing, buffing, debuffing. All other powers will be made into rituals and except from the name there is nothing known about them, not if monsters will have acces to dhem, not what they are exactly able to do, not if they are limited or even who is able to cast them and how often.

Actually, we do know that monsters have access to rituals. From the Pit Fiend:

DC 30: Once every 99 years, a pit fiend can grant a mortal's wish by performing a terrible ritual. Only the most powerful and promising of mortals are offered such a temptation.

(bold mine)

 

[DreamChaser]

(bold mine)

Inference yours as well. There is no reason to assume that this use of rituals is the same use that animate dead and item creation has become.

At this stage we simply don't know that or really anything else substantive about the magic system beyond the tidbits they have dropped so far.

DC

 

[Counterspin]

Man, I have Derren on ignore and I still have to correct him. Charm person for instance, is still going to be around, so the suggestion that all spells will be combat spells is obviously incorrect.

 

[Hussar]

Inference yours as well. There is no reason to assume that this use of rituals is the same use that animate dead and item creation has become.

At this stage we simply don't know that or really anything else substantive about the magic system beyond the tidbits they have dropped so far.

DC

Well, true. They don't tell you what the ritual is. But, the fact that they DO say ritual and use it to allow a creature to cast Wish (something they've yoinked out of the wizard's spell book apparently) points pretty strongly to it.

And, it would make creating mastermind creatures ridiculously easy to just allow the use of rituals. Need a demons summoning cultist? Poof, give him the Summon Demon ritual. Now you don't need a 17th level cultist who can cast Gate in order to use a demon.

In my mind anyway, this fits pretty well with what we're being told.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

It's also possible that they use the arcana unearthed model -- which basically made the sorcerer's "spells known" table into a "spells prepared table".

This is kind of what I am expecting. Also, with 30 levels of magic, I'm kind of expecting a lot of spells that can be cast in multiple ways - maybe you choose Fire Manipulation in some way, and then you are able to use burning hands, scorching ray, fireball, etc at various levels, boosting them up according to certain rules (adding extra rays, or extra HD to damge, etc). What is a per day power at first level might be an at-will power at 10th.

 

[Danzauker]

From what I've seen until now it seems to me that:

- Many low-power, short-duration spells and effect will be moved in the at will or per encounter category. These will probably encompass mainly damaging, tactical or otherwise offensive spells, like Daze, Magic Missile, and such. Low powered would likely be at will, while more powerful would be per encounter effects.

- Powerful spells will be powers with a limited number of daily uses. How similar those will be to old-fashioned spells, is to be seen. I guess Fireball, Lightning bolt and similar "big boom" spells will be in this category.

- The long duration, long casting time, very powerful or otherwise game-breaking effects will probably be rituals. Those willl probably too long to cast or have such requirements that they will not be usable in combat situations. I guess Teleport and Plane shift are very good candidates. Item cretion will also be handled through rituals.

Most of this is my speculation, anyway.

 

[Darrius Adler]

I am rather hoping that the wizard can learn infinate spells (if he can find them) but has per encounter/per day slots that must be prepared for the day. He has many to choose from in what to use for the day but a limited number that he can keep in mind for the day and use effectively. Or perhaps he can change them during play if he can find enough time to review his book and switch them. Bo9S chars could only have X number of powers readied for any given time but knew more than they could have ready. They could also switch what they had ready if given 5 min or so to refocus.

 

[Lizard]

I'm a big fan of the "spells are rare and precious things you must hunt down" school, so if the Cool Stuff is all Rituals, and the DM controls how/when these enter the game, so much the better.

I can see it as "Normal magic is short, flashy, and combat focused, the product of basic knowledge of the Art. Casters also learn a few tricks to help pick up girls. The real mojo, though, anything which produces long-lasting or wide-ranging effects, requires rituals, all of which are conveniently lost and forgotten."

(Game breaking things like scry, long-range teleport/gate, etc better be rituals.)

 

[helium3]

Reduced size and breadth in the spell lists would be a big plus for me.

I feel exactly the opposite. The size and breadth of the spell lists is what makes the game for me.

 

[Mallus]

I feel exactly the opposite. The size and breadth of the spell lists is what makes the game for me.

I find the Big Lists out of place in a system that's supposed to value niche protection. Sure, large and varied spell lists make the game... for the people playing casters... but for everyone else it's not so good.


(What I really prefer are games with "toolbox" character creation mechanics like Mutants and Masterminds.)