Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 4347478" data-attributes="member: 29252">Glad to help.At higher levels, a optimally played standard caster turns lower-level spell slots over to buff and utility - or the ones where for the effect you're actually after, the save doesn't matter (save or no, Glitterdust counters invisibility on the targets; save or no, Web still entangles those caught in it's area, which makes for easier targets and ones that don't hit as effectively anymore; Grease still forces balance checks, and even if you make the check, this means you're flat-footed without at least five ranks in Balance... the Rogue will thank the caster if he's thinking about it; and so on).  But you're also missing a side-effect here - the Wizard is using his low level spells up for offensive effect - that Wiz-13 with the Int-22 has 6 1st level spell slots, 6 2nd level spell slots, 5 3rd level spell slots, 5 4th level spell slots, 4 5th level spell slots, 3 6th level spell slots, and 1 7th level spell slot - if he does nearly as much effect with his 3rd+ spell slots as what would normally require his 6th and 7th level spell slots, he's got 18 spell's worth of near-maximally effective actions, rather than the 4 spell's worth of near-maximially effective actions that the standard-rules wizard has available - his endurance is way, way up there... and a lack of endurance was previously one of the balancing factors on the Wizard class as a whole.  Not too unreasonable.True - but with the reserve system, it's a lot more likely to succeed.Because stronger enemies have stronger defenses.  Charm Person isn't effective at higher levels because your targets are generally more experienced with resisting magicks, more set in their ways, better at dodging things, et cetera.  A big chunk of that is from the save reduction.  If the save isn't reduced, at 13th level, that Empowered Fireball (5th level slot) is more effective than that Delayed Blast Fireball (10d6*1.5 for the Empowered Fireball, average of about 52 damage; 13d6 for the Delayed Blast Fireball, average of about 45.5 damage) ... and you can cast more of the Empowered Fireballs (they're 5th level slots, vs. the 7th level slot for the Delayed Blast Fireball).  With the save for half put back in, the average damage of the two gets a lot better for DBF - because targets are a lot less likely to save.  Take that away, and the EF is a lot better than the DBF for just about any case except where you're specifically using the delay on the DBF.  Oh yeah - and the Empowered Fireball has been doing that much damage since 10th level.  With the same save DC, the DBF doesn't become better than the Empowered Fireball until 15th or 16th, when the DBF's higher damage die cap overwhelms the bonus from Empower Spell on the Fireball.Granted, direct-damage evocations aren't optimal - but they're useful when trying to illustrate a point, as they're very easy to use for mathematical comparisons.</blockquote>

Verification