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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3446691" data-attributes="member: 32164">I guess I just have trouble believing that the best possible magic system for fantasy gaming was worked out by Gary Gygax on his coffee table in 1973.Just because it works reasonably well doesn't mean it's that good. Most of the problems people have with D&D hinge on the magic system. The current hit point system requires healing spells. WotC has admitted that the cleric is overpowered so that people will be willing to play the walking bandaid. To me, that says something is terribly wrong.Top that off with the notion of spell and counterspell and something needs to be fixed. Because Raise Dead is a 5th-level spell, we need a way to make you MORE dead. So we introduce instant death spells that can't be reversed by raise dead. For that you need resurrection. And we introduce spells that can't be reversed by resurrection, requiring True Resurrection. That means D&D has more levels of dead than The Princess Bride - 4 to be precise. Let's call them All Dead (can't be resurrected at all), Mostly Dead (requires True Resurrection), Pretty dead (requires Resurrection), and Slightly dead (requires Raise Dead). Frankly, it's gotten silly. Heck, even Gary abandoned it in favor of other systems when he went on to design other games.I admit that 3e has settled on the archetypal party of fighter, mage, rogue and cleric. But IIRC, OD&D only had the fighting man, magic user, and thief. The "cleric" came along later as a hybrid between fighting man and magic user. Then druids were more magic-usery, getting some offensive type spells. In 1e AD&D, Rangers could cast both arcane and divine spells. Heck, even in 3e, there are arcane healing spells (see bards) and divine attack spells (fire strike, call lightning, and various others, including a divine version of fireball). So to me, the arcane/divine thing isn't much of a sacred cow. It's basically a flavor difference.The cleric was intended as a hybrid who had combat ability and lesser spellcasting talent. With free multiclassing (one of 3e's VERY good innovations), we no longer need that hybrid class. So kill it.Just my two cents.Alignment's another discussion, I'm afraid.</blockquote>

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