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<blockquote data-quote="Justin Bacon" data-source="post: 3158165" data-attributes="member: 3795">Theoretically, maybe that the intent. In practice, however, it's not the case.In 3.0 my party would buff up, generally sucking up about half their spell slots to do so. Then they'd have several hours in which to explore the dungeon complex, frequently calling it quits because other daily resources (such as healing) were beginning to wear thin before their buffs came to an end.In 3.5 that same party still buffs up, sucking up about half their spell slots. Then they go into the 1 or 2 encounters they've been scouting out for the day, overwhelm them in an orgy of spellcasting fury as they rapidly burn through all of their daily resources in one glorious explosion, and then head back to their carefully prepared and fortified camp.There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but I preferred the exploration model of 3.0.How has this changed? A targeted dispel magic still strips off all their buff bonuses.This was a solid change. Although the motivation for people to buy stat-buffing items hasn't changed in my campaign: People but stat-buffing items so that the spellcasters wouldn't need to zap them with a buff spell, freeing up that spell slot for other uses. That's as true in 3.5 as it was in 3.0.Ultimately, there's a schizophrenic element to the WotC design team on this issue: On the one hand, they talk about how the buff/fight/rest cycle isn't fun or thematically &quot;right&quot;. On the other hand, they shortened the buff durations and made that buff/fight/rest cycle even more pronounced and prominent.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Justin Bacon, post: 3158165, member: 3795"] Theoretically, maybe that the intent. In practice, however, it's not the case. In 3.0 my party would buff up, generally sucking up about half their spell slots to do so. Then they'd have several hours in which to explore the dungeon complex, frequently calling it quits because other daily resources (such as healing) were beginning to wear thin before their buffs came to an end. In 3.5 that same party still buffs up, sucking up about half their spell slots. Then they go into the 1 or 2 encounters they've been scouting out for the day, overwhelm them in an orgy of spellcasting fury as they rapidly burn through all of their daily resources in one glorious explosion, and then head back to their carefully prepared and fortified camp. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but I preferred the exploration model of 3.0. How has this changed? A targeted dispel magic still strips off all their buff bonuses. This was a solid change. Although the motivation for people to buy stat-buffing items hasn't changed in my campaign: People but stat-buffing items so that the spellcasters wouldn't need to zap them with a buff spell, freeing up that spell slot for other uses. That's as true in 3.5 as it was in 3.0. Ultimately, there's a schizophrenic element to the WotC design team on this issue: On the one hand, they talk about how the buff/fight/rest cycle isn't fun or thematically "right". On the other hand, they shortened the buff durations and made that buff/fight/rest cycle even more pronounced and prominent. [/QUOTE]

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