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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sunshadow21" data-source="post: 6658596" data-attributes="member: 6667193">That's why in my games, getting to the point where you know it's going to have that impact is part of the challenge, and that's where roleplay, skill checks, character backgrounds, and world contacts come into play. The zone of truth is massively effective at getting the confession, but you have to know the right time and place to use it in order for it to work. Invisibility can be a game saver in that key moment, but you have to know it's the key moment. Even divination spells require that you ask the right questions or look in the right place. Spells and magic can be amazingly powerful tactical tools with good party support, whether it be pinning down an enemy in combat or the rogue sneaking off to do some investigating to get that key piece of information, but it takes a really good player to use them as strategic tools. That was actually my biggest frustration with rituals in 4E; they were nice, but for the majority of them, by the time you realized you needed it, it was too late to cast it, so they really didn't do much to take the place of lost spells. I suspect that 5E has more or less the same issue, being tied to the regular spells like they are. I would have preferred rituals similar to 4E but with longer durations (possibly reducing the overall effects to emphasize the duration aspect) or quick, immediate response type things (like a single action for 1 round of invisibility type of thing) to get yourself out of tight spots. By tying them to spells, it actually removes both of these potentially useful uses, spell design has to really emphasize the big and the flashy, but mostly immediate effects. The big thing I've noticed with groups that stick to "magic solves everything" is that the DM never introduces consequences for always taking shortcuts. DMs that occasionally do things like using that zone of truth to reveal that what the PCs thought was the truth wasn't, and the actual truth is something that the party could have used to their advantage if they had discovered it quietly, but because of the circumstances required to effectively use the zone of truth, they lost that advantage, and may have even had it turned into a disadvantage, tend to not have major martial/caster disparity issues. Magic can resolve just about any encounter with the right amount of preparation and foreknowledge, but even a small story arc is going to be beyond the range of a single spell if written and ran even half way decently. Multiple spells could resolve a small story arc, but the setup for those spells to work together is almost certainly going to involve nonmagic activity, and magic is no longer automatically the quick and easy shortcut, so there is no reason for casters to automatically dominate anything.</blockquote>

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