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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8558706" data-attributes="member: 19857">In the old days what happened was the low level wizard was a small sack of meat that needed to be protected by the fighters and could contribute to the battle sometimes by throwing a dagger every once in a while and maybe getting a lucky hit in.  If you were a wizard whose DM "allowed" you to pick your own spells or if you rolled randomly well enough, you could throw out a sleep spell to shut down a single battle.If you could get your sack of meat to survive until 5th level then you were far enough into the exponential curve that by that point you could start out fighting the fighter in battles, but since a) wizards needed more XP to get to 5th level and b) lots of games didn't last much beyond 5th level you often didn't get to see that part of the curve.In 3e it got a bit better in that wizards were allowed to use crossbows (poorly) and the unified XP table meant that you got to 5th level when everyone else did and as a consequence you got that part of the power curve.  But the first few levels even in 3e are still basically hiding behind the fighter as judiciously using your spells only when needed until you are far enough into the exponential curve to start making an impact.No, because the problem that damage dealing cantrips solve is a low level problem while casters don't get overpowered until higher levels.  The damage from cantrips scales roughly the same as the damage that fighters do (actually IME through at least level 10 the fighters are out damaging any caster that is primarily using cantrips to attack instead of using more powerful spells - since I have one caster who will only use cantrips until it absolutely becomes necessary that she use a slot to cast a spell and I watch this dynamic in action).Is this really an impact in play rather than in theory?  I've never had a game where players ran out of ammo even when we actually track it.  I could have exceptional players who are on the ball and always calculate how much ammo they should buy, but given that the group I'm thinking of actually managed to enter a dungeon without anyone putting rope on their character sheet I highly doubt it.</blockquote>

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