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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6830749" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I thought that was what the Warlock and Bard *were*? Forgive me if I'm mistaken--I'm away from book at the moment--but doesn't the Bard have fewer total spell slots than pretty much every other "full" caster? And without the free prepped spells that Divine casters get (excluding Rangers for whatever reason), or Arcane Recovery/Sorcery points to recover slots, the Bard is left a clear notch below most other "full" caster classes. Similarly, while the Warlock always casts spells with a punch, how many it can cast per day is pretty heavily limited. I don't remember when the numbers increase, but you spend most of the single-digit levels casting only 2 spells per short rest. By the expected encounter math (regardless of whether it is actually used in practice*), that's only 1 spell per combat on average--or even less, if you use them out of combat too.The one and only exception to all of that, the one place where all "full" casters are effectively the same is cantrips (well, give or take a couple cantrips). And much of your point appears to rest on that specific bit. So I think the real question is, "are cantrips spells?" Because you seem to be 110% behind the idea that they're precisely as magical as something that costs a spell slot--whereas I'd see them as being much, much less magical than most "proper" spells. Cantrips are intentionally the "workhorses" of magic. Anyone who specializes in magic picks up a few, because they're the dirt-easy basics almost anyone can learn (you even get one with that feat whose name escapes me).If you view cantrips as axiomatically equivalent to spells proper, then it's pretty much a given that you're going to find "spells" to be ubiquitous, workhorse, mundane, and bland. Combat cantrips exist almost purely as "quality of life" things for full casters; as AaronofBarbaria more or less put it on the first page, full casters have gone from very frequently NEEDING to use tools they were explicitly bad at using, to having basic tools in their own wheelhouse to fall back on when the "big guns" are being held in reserve.So, how much of your issue would be "resolved" by forcing Wizards et al. to pull out a crossbow, that they can't hit with worth beans, whenever they want to do damage without casting a spell proper? Or, in other words, removing all (or all ranged) damage cantrips?*While many people are quite up-front about the fact that they don't follow the expected 6-8 encounters, 2-3 short rests, what minimal data I've collected, as flawed as it is, indicates that the number of rests between combats is either the same (1 rest:2 combats:1 rest:2 combats etc.) or there are more combats per rest, closer to 1 rest every 2.5 or even 3 combats. So the Warlock--and most other heavily short-rest-based classes--are, if anything, slightly behind their expected loadout on average, and may not cast any spells proper in some combats (until they reach much higher levels). But, as noted, they almost surely will cast cantrips.</blockquote>

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