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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 3763444" data-attributes="member: 15999">But that's the point of disagreement.  To me, playing a novice wizard, it feels RIGHT to only be able to control the magic for a brief burst of power each day.  Not to be able to throw minor blasts of flame all day long.  Why?1) Game Tradition.  I grew up on B/X.  I LOVE the feel of the system.  I've always had the option to play other games and I've always chosen to play D&D.  To me, a wizard starts out weak but can potentially become very powerful (Moldvay B10).  To me, magic is limited but strength can be used as often as needed (Mentzer B28).  These are fundamental design principles of the game that I love.  If I didn't like a game in which I couldn't use my hands, I wouldn't play soccer.  If I didn't like a game in which wizards started weak, I wouldn't play D&D. 2) Mythic tradition.  This one's a little hard to explain, but let me try.  When I imagine a wizard from a legendary story, I *don't* imagine someone slinging magic left and right.  I imagine someone with a great deal of the knowledge and the (rarely exercised) ability to use magic.  That's Merlin, Gandalf, the wizard in Conan, or the druids in the background of the stories of Finn MacCool or Cuchulainn.  Why is somewhat more subtle image of a wizard so potent?  Because the people inventing the legends believed there could be wizards among them, yet never saw any overt signs of magic.  Therefore, the mark of a wizard is not "He's always turning people into newts," but rather "He COULD turn you into a newt if you offend him."  So to me, continuously spewing little fireballs like the wizard in Gauntlet does not feel wizardly.  (On a side note, 3E did a great job bringing a wizard's knowledge to the foreground, but 4E seems to be focusing on spell-slinging as What a Wizard Does.)3) It makes magic feel more powerful if mortals' capacity to channel it is limited.  The old system ephasizes the power of magic and the fact that wizards are fundamentally human.  When they're resorting to whacking things with a staff as they are out of magic -- they're just people.  People who are working to master magic, but people nonetheless.  Incidentally, I also love the warlock class, with his unlimited reservoirs being something clearly dark and dangerous... he's rather inhuman.</blockquote>

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