Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4305789" data-attributes="member: 40961">They don't suck.  Also, balance works differently now, and huge damage area of effects are a bad idea.*shrugs*The wizard's damage output is lower than it was in 3e because in 3e the balance was designed different.  3e wizard balance was about a spell conservation economy.  In 4e everyone has the same ability conservation economy (or close to it), so instead balance is obtained through an action economy.In 3e, a wizard could have a fireball that did ZOMGALOT of damage when he first learned it, because he could only do it once or twice.  Eventually he ran out of spells and had to use a rickety crossbow, and his damage rate plummeted until he took a nap.  Then the fighter types caught up.  This created some flaws, namely the prevalence of narcolepsy amongst the magically inclined, but it was the theory.In 4e, things are different.  A wizard in 4e can vastly exceed the damage rate of most of his allies, IF he's hitting multiple targets per round.  Compare a level 1 wizard with a level 1 ranger: the ranger is going to attack for about 1d10+1d6+4 to a single target, for an average damage per hit of 13 against a designated quarry.  Scorching burst is going to do 1d6+4 damage, averaging 7.5 damage.  That's a lot less.  Unless, of course, the wizard hits two enemies at one time.  Then he clocks in at 15 damage.That's the key to playing a wizard.  Remember that how much damage your spells do per target has to be multiplied by the number of targets you hit.And using our hypothetical ranger and wizard, suppose the ranger takes Weapon Focus: Longbow.  He'll be doing an average of 14 damage.  The wizard could take Astral Fire- it won't work on every single spell he has.  But it will improve his two-target damage with Scorching Burst to a total of 17.  Twice the benefit.Anyways, the +1 damage feats are ok.  They're not must-have feats, but they're decent.  I wouldn't go out of my way to mangle my ability scores to pick one up, but if I were playing a wizard who happened to qualify, or come close to qualifying, for one of them, I'd snag it.  Why not?</blockquote>

Verification