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<blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5104766" data-attributes="member: 5143">That's basically it.&nbsp; This spell was mostly copied from previous editions.&nbsp; 3.5 is odd in that it is the first edition that is concerned with balance almost at all.&nbsp; In 2e or 1e, you expect there to be a huge imbalance.&nbsp; No one really complained at how powerful Shapechange was in 2e when I played.&nbsp; Instead we just said &quot;Come on and cast Shapechange and just kill all of the enemies and we'll get on to moving further into this dungeon.&quot;&nbsp; We expected it was an &quot;I Win&quot; button.&nbsp; It was a high level spell.&nbsp; It was expected that it was that powerful.&nbsp; But Wizards and magic users of all kinds have the ability to turn into dragons in books and movies.&nbsp; They should have it in D&amp;D.&nbsp; And turning into a DRAGON should pretty much be an immediate win.Or so the 2e logic goes.&nbsp; And me and all my friends accepted this back in the day.&nbsp; Periodically, we'd get annoyed that we were forced to play the fighter since the party needed one while someone else got to win with one spell.&nbsp; But we sucked it up and moved on.3.0 and 3.5 was the start of a shift in philosophy.&nbsp; It said &quot;Why do you HAVE to suck it up?&nbsp; Couldn't the rules just be balanced so that no matter what option you chose you were just as good as everyone else?&quot;&nbsp; Only the problem was, they didn't want to change the game TOO much.&nbsp; So, they kept a bunch of rules the same as they were in previous editions because someone on the design team would say &quot;But Shapechange was one of my favorite spells, it's classic D&amp;D to become a dragon and kill all the enemies&quot;.In fact, most of the real balance issues in 3.5e came from &quot;open ended&quot; rules.&nbsp; Any time a spell said &quot;pick any monster&quot; or &quot;choose a bonus&quot; or &quot;immunity&quot; or things like &quot;escapes from all methods of restraint&quot; or &quot;opens all locks&quot; it generally became imbalanced.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Majoru Oakheart, post: 5104766, member: 5143"] That's basically it. This spell was mostly copied from previous editions. 3.5 is odd in that it is the first edition that is concerned with balance almost at all. In 2e or 1e, you expect there to be a huge imbalance. No one really complained at how powerful Shapechange was in 2e when I played. Instead we just said "Come on and cast Shapechange and just kill all of the enemies and we'll get on to moving further into this dungeon." We expected it was an "I Win" button. It was a high level spell. It was expected that it was that powerful. But Wizards and magic users of all kinds have the ability to turn into dragons in books and movies. They should have it in D&D. And turning into a DRAGON should pretty much be an immediate win. Or so the 2e logic goes. And me and all my friends accepted this back in the day. Periodically, we'd get annoyed that we were forced to play the fighter since the party needed one while someone else got to win with one spell. But we sucked it up and moved on. 3.0 and 3.5 was the start of a shift in philosophy. It said "Why do you HAVE to suck it up? Couldn't the rules just be balanced so that no matter what option you chose you were just as good as everyone else?" Only the problem was, they didn't want to change the game TOO much. So, they kept a bunch of rules the same as they were in previous editions because someone on the design team would say "But Shapechange was one of my favorite spells, it's classic D&D to become a dragon and kill all the enemies". In fact, most of the real balance issues in 3.5e came from "open ended" rules. Any time a spell said "pick any monster" or "choose a bonus" or "immunity" or things like "escapes from all methods of restraint" or "opens all locks" it generally became imbalanced. [/QUOTE]

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