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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 3813592" data-attributes="member: 467">The following selections from the text should give you a good overview:On Vancian style magic over magic points"If spell points were to be used, it would require that either selection be limited or all other characters or monsters be strengthened.  Otherwise, spell users would quickly come to dominate the game, and participants would desire to play only that class of character."While 4E isn't using spell points per se, its use of at-will abilities has indeed predicated the need to increase the power of other character types so that they can keep pace, as evidenced by playtest reports and blog posts and other hints about 4E.  there will be those that say magic-users were already overpowered, especially at high levels.  These are likely the same people that complain about the "resting at 10 AM" part of the game.  Of course spell casters will be overpowered if they blow all their spells early and the party has to continually rest to keep them powered up.  That's the point of the resource management system -- having to manage those resources balances the caster against the characters that use their abilities all the time (fighters and the like).  Having to use those resources to support the "weaker" fighters and such is also a balancing factor.On the benefits of the Vancian system:"[the system] allows a vast array of spells. Each is assigned a level (mnemonic difficulty) rating, and experience grades are used to expand the capacity of the spell caster.  The use of this particular system allows more restrictions upon spellcasting character types, of course, while allowing freedom to assign certain spells to lower difficulty factors to keep the character types viable in its early stages."The best example of this is sleep -- this spell makes the magic user extremely potent at early levels, since most foes the low level party faces are low HD monsters.  But the character is severely limited in how often he or she may use such a powerful ability, and must choose it over other more utilitarian spells.  Again, this is the resource management "mini-game" that is part and parcel with playing a Vancian caster and its advantages, IMO, outweigh its disadvantages.On how Vancian magic impacts play:"Of real importance, however, is the fact that it requires far more effort from spell casters in gaining, preparing and casting spells.  it makes them more vulnerable to attacks which spoil the casting of the spell.  All in all it tends to make each and every profession possible for characters in a [D&D] game to be more equal to, but still very different from, all the others."Niche protection, the hallmark of D&D.  Here's a point that it seems 4E is trying to hold on to.  I'll be interested to see how they manage it when they are also saying that multiclasing will be "effortless".</blockquote>

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