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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trevelyan" data-source="post: 4387944" data-attributes="member: 54488">The cost and potential for increased versatility with additional suppliments were my two chief concerns when I looked at this. Aside from the convenience of using the magic item costs, I was working on the assumption that the highest level spells the wizard can cast at any given moment are going to be sufficiently expensive that he can't really afford to buy them, and if he does then it represents a significant proportion of his resources. So under this system the wizard will inevitably have fewer high level spells than under RAW. However, the scaling price of magic items, with cost increasing five fold every five levels, means that, by the time the wizard obtains a new spell level, he can purchse multiple spells of his second higest spell level for the same cost as one of his highest, and spells of his lowest available slot level are a fairly trivial expense. For example a 15th level wizard can purchase either 1 extra 15th level spell, approximately 5 extra 9th level spells, or pretty much as many 5th level spells as he is likely to need. Hence the flexibility as regards spells in new suppliments is only really applicable to the lowest level spells that the wizard will practically choose to cast, and that flexibility comes at the cost of reduced flexibility in his highest level spells where it would presumably be most valuable. I must admit that the option to learn additional spells is of most interest personally when it comes to utility spells. The low number of available utility spells coupled with the lack of an official "expended utility spellbook feat" leaves 4E wizards a pale shadow of their former selves, in particular when it comes to interesting non-combat utility spell selections. While the ability to prepare a wide range of spells made wizards powerful in previous editions, the limited number of spell slots available alone cuts back on potential abuse in 4E. I personally worry that the additional limit of only two utility spells known per level is too much of a hinderance for the party as a whole in 4E.  Taking level 6 as an example, restricting any given wizard to only two spells known from a list including Dimension Door, Disguise Self, Dispell Magic, Invisibility, Levitate and Wall of Fog is detrimental to the group as a whole, forcing the wizard towards selfish choices and generally making the likes of Disguise Self too expensive in terms of opportunity cost to ever learn and reducing the story poential inherent in the wizard's spell list accordingly. Likewise, the limitations on Invisibility make it unappealing for personal use and therefore an unpopular choice, and the story potential of being able to prepare Invisibility for espionage type stories is lost.</blockquote>

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