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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 6073528" data-attributes="member: 8461">This thread is awesome for its clear-sighted acknowledgment of the problems with full-progression spellcasters (and suggested fixes). To these problems I'll add (though these aren't the biggest problems, they are still problems):The inflation to ability scores. Now, this is an issue for all classes (as it's a microcosm of the overall power-creep across editions), but it was particularly notable for its inflation of spellcasters' power. The greater cohesion with ability scores meant that not only did higher ability scores get you bonus spells per level, it also made your spells more likely to affect creatures (due to the introduction of DCs which could be bumped). Far worse, though, was how this softened the limitation of requiring a "prime requisite" of a certain amount to cast spells of a given level.While previous editions had ability score requirements to cast spells of a given level, these limits were much more severe due to how difficult it was to boost ability scores after character generation. You didn't get +1 ability points to an attribute of your choice every fourth level - which meant that if you didn't have a spectacular prime requisite in a given caster level, you'd never be casting the higher-level spells.What made this worse were the changes to multiclassing. Whereas before, dual-classing and multiclassing were divorced from concepts of your character's total level, the introduction of multiclassing as additive progression along a single, total chart of 20 levels (with a unified, progressive XP table) meant that multiclassing for spellcasters nerfed them badly - this encouraged the development of single-classed, tricked-out uber-casters. Being a human wizard 10/fighter 10 with an Intelligence of 16 was a viable choice back in 1st or 2nd Edition, which saw that as only a 10th-level character - in 3.X on, it was poor character-design that effectively crippled your (now considered 20th-level) character.</blockquote>

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