Has anyone else noticed how wizards (and sorcerers for that matter) always get nerfed whenever there's a revision, new edition, or errata?
Most recently, 3.5th Edition wasted the Spell Focus feats, but also earlier, as with the Epic Level Handbook. Saves and attack bonuses just keep increasing in epic levels, making it continually harder for a wizard's spells to have effect and for a wizard to survive an encounter with something as simple and straightforward as an equal-level fighter.
They might be able to slay that fighter with a single spell, but that's only once per day per spell slot expended and unlikely, depending on the level of both of them, and a fighter with 4 attacks, dealing 2d6+18 points of damage with each strike, is at least as lethal, except, he is always so, even if the attacks failed in the first round.
Wizards should be feared for their arcane power, not just be viewed as "useful" or "second-rate buffers". No fiend fears a guy able to levitate and hurl balls of flame that only deal 4 points of damage 'cause of the fiend's save and resistance.
Wizards can be powerful, but only 10 rounds or so each day, never continually so. It only takes a creature with spell resistance, high saves, or enough poundin' power to drop a wizard. Theoretically, anything with enough hit points can ignore Reflex saves, fearing only save-or-die spells, that could also be called fail-or-nothing. If that hit point powerhouse then just boosts Fortitude and Will saves (not a hard task for a cleric), they're virtually impossible to drop like that. Wizards on the other hand, must have an improbably high Constitution to get to that point. Please take note, however, that I'm not encouraging that style of play. The feared death effects should be part of any game, but they should have be effective too. Not just once in 20. Fighters taking on anything 'cause they know they've got more than enough hit points to swim through a pool of lava, and Fortitude save bonuses enough to ignore a finger of death, even if cast by Szass Tam himself, are simply a ridiculous evolution, or rather, devolution of the "tank" concept. Assassins are no longer feared, slay living is no longer feared, and worst of all, combat has degenerated to a hack-and-slash fest.
To prove my point, we can look at 3.5th Edition once more. Fighters have only grown stronger (Greater Weapon Focus and Specialization), and Barbarians, Paladins, and Rangers too, having been granted several new abilities, but wizards and sorcerers have only gotten nerfed (although not that much). Even the rogue has gotten her uncanny dodge delayed by one or two levels, getting the impressive trap sense in return. Mind you, that last sentence was ironic. It almost seems like WotC wants everybody to play only fighter-type characters.
Anyway, I hope I got my point across without causing any insult.
- Cyraneth
Most recently, 3.5th Edition wasted the Spell Focus feats, but also earlier, as with the Epic Level Handbook. Saves and attack bonuses just keep increasing in epic levels, making it continually harder for a wizard's spells to have effect and for a wizard to survive an encounter with something as simple and straightforward as an equal-level fighter.
They might be able to slay that fighter with a single spell, but that's only once per day per spell slot expended and unlikely, depending on the level of both of them, and a fighter with 4 attacks, dealing 2d6+18 points of damage with each strike, is at least as lethal, except, he is always so, even if the attacks failed in the first round.
Wizards should be feared for their arcane power, not just be viewed as "useful" or "second-rate buffers". No fiend fears a guy able to levitate and hurl balls of flame that only deal 4 points of damage 'cause of the fiend's save and resistance.
Wizards can be powerful, but only 10 rounds or so each day, never continually so. It only takes a creature with spell resistance, high saves, or enough poundin' power to drop a wizard. Theoretically, anything with enough hit points can ignore Reflex saves, fearing only save-or-die spells, that could also be called fail-or-nothing. If that hit point powerhouse then just boosts Fortitude and Will saves (not a hard task for a cleric), they're virtually impossible to drop like that. Wizards on the other hand, must have an improbably high Constitution to get to that point. Please take note, however, that I'm not encouraging that style of play. The feared death effects should be part of any game, but they should have be effective too. Not just once in 20. Fighters taking on anything 'cause they know they've got more than enough hit points to swim through a pool of lava, and Fortitude save bonuses enough to ignore a finger of death, even if cast by Szass Tam himself, are simply a ridiculous evolution, or rather, devolution of the "tank" concept. Assassins are no longer feared, slay living is no longer feared, and worst of all, combat has degenerated to a hack-and-slash fest.
To prove my point, we can look at 3.5th Edition once more. Fighters have only grown stronger (Greater Weapon Focus and Specialization), and Barbarians, Paladins, and Rangers too, having been granted several new abilities, but wizards and sorcerers have only gotten nerfed (although not that much). Even the rogue has gotten her uncanny dodge delayed by one or two levels, getting the impressive trap sense in return. Mind you, that last sentence was ironic. It almost seems like WotC wants everybody to play only fighter-type characters.
Anyway, I hope I got my point across without causing any insult.
- Cyraneth
