Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 3654172" data-attributes="member: 8158">I dunno, I think obscuring stuff with clouds of mist is a little too situational. I really think a staple's should be as simple and direct as it gets. It's OK if it's not the strongest choice, that there are less obvious but superior options available. I'm basically syncing up with what Monte Cook wrote about wizards in his journal a year or two ago. He said that one of his cohorts (Skip Williams, I think) used to argue that wizards should belong to a caste of character classes that reward players with a comprehensive knowledge of the game (particularly spells). Monte, OTOH, felt that this was part of the "ivory tower" thinking about D&D that he didn't like, and that while that was all well and good to reward mastery of the rules, no class should be considered unapproachable or weak by players just because they lack said comprehensive knowledge.  I see even in this thread the attitude such-and-such a spell isn't all that great because it can be assumed that any wizard worth his salt should know of other stuff that's better. You're right, mages shouldn't be getting attacked under ideal circumstances. There are probably better defensive options. Likewise, fireballs aren't as great as some initially think they are because of the difficulty in placing them without hitting an ally. Scorching ray seems great, especially compared to, say, melf's acid arrow, but short range, spell resistance, and the commonality of fire resistance can all work against the former moreso than the latter. But fireball and scorching ray can still be considered staple evocation spells all the same. Staples aren't necessarily the most powerful of their ilk, just the most basic and reliable.If they ever lose the dumb 100 gp material component, I'd be tempted to go with identify as a staple. I still have no idea how characters are supposed to identify all those 50 gp potions they're running into without breaking the bank.</blockquote>

Verification