Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7114985" data-attributes="member: 12731">The spell selection in the PHB was fine, but really, we need more spells by now. And while power creep is not an issue to take lightly, the spells need to be able to compete with the mainstays, or the effort is wasted, really. For instance, most Elemental Evil spells are only adding middling alternatives. This makes the compendium useful for a DM that wants to widen the repertoire of monster spellcasters, but it really does nothing to shake things up for player characters.The game really needs something similar to the balance provided by the auction system used by certain board games. That is, providing a menu of options is fine even when the choices aren't equal, if you have an in-game mechanical means of compensating the player that takes the inferior option.In board games, you auction money or action points or places on the starting order.I think something similar would really help us balance-minded gamers.For example: Fireball, Lightning Bolt and Wall of Sand are three level 3 spells (the last one from the EEPC). Yet, Treeantmonk rates Fireball green (good), Lightning Bolt purple (average) and [COLOR="#CC000"]Wall of Sand[/COLOR] red (bad, relative to its level).I really wish there was a way to provide a rational reason for even mechanical-minded players to pick Lighting Bolt or Wall of Sand, without having to sacrifice efficiency on the altar of coolness and characterization. A very simplistic (and probably abusable) approach: each time you pick an average spell (presumably instead of an excellent or good one), you gain something minor (+2 hp, a once/day spell slot at least four levels lower than the spell's level etc). Each time you pick a [COLOR="#CC000"]bad[/COLOR] or worse spell, you gain something not minor (+1 HD, a spell slot just two levels lower).For instance, casting the spell [COLOR="#CC000"]Weird[/COLOR] might feel much more reasonable if it also grants you a bonus level 7 slot (two levels lower than Weird).Just an example to explain what I'm talking about. No need to start discussing Treeantmonk's ratings (there's a thread for that), or to point out the myriad ways this particular approach can ruin your campaign <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification