In two different threads recently there were comments that Cantrips make magic too common, so it doesn't feel magical. They were often accompanied by ideas to restrict the number of cantrips per rest.
The issue for me is that there are a lot more actions per day then skill slots, all the way up through 20th. Here's a breakdown I did in an earlier thread:
The baseline we have from this is that casters will be mostly not-spells until double digits, and even at 20 will still have a good chunk of actions more than spell slots.
Back in pre-cantrip editions casters needed to default to mundane solutions - wizards throwing darts, etc. Using mundane solutions also does not make casters feel magical.
The idea of a few cantrips per day doesn't work - it still leaves mundane solutions for most actions until the highest of levels.
So how do we combine the contradictory ideas that (a) at-will magic makes magic feel mundane that several people have stated, and (b) have that casters can contribute meaningfully in a magical way without having to resort to mundane actions? I don't think a direct compromise works, so what solutions orthogonal to mundane=mundane and at-will=mundane can we find?
Apologies if this is a repeat, but could we steal the basic concepts of magic in PBTA games like Monster of The Week?
You roll on all cantrips, regardless of effect. Several “glitches” are determined ahead of time.
On a roll of <=X, you fail to activate the cantrip.
On a roll of X+1 to x+Y, it’s a mixed success. The Cantrip works, and the player chooses a glitch, with DM approval
On a roll above X+Y, it’s a total success. It works, no glitch.
On a Natural 20 on a cantrip that can’t crit, you can choose a secondary benefit, like imposing disadvantage on a check, or giving advantage to an ally.
Just as a very very basic outline of the sort of thing we could do.
In this way, I’d also
consider eliminating many cantrips and folding what thy do into the appropriate magic skill, and giving that magic skill to the appropriate class and subclasses as a bonus skill. So, Spare the Dying is a Religion Skill option for anyone with the Spellcasting feature and the skill trained?
Then thighs like Arcana being able to attempt to disable magic traps and manipulate portals could work, with risks.