Wizards: Already Too Strong?

[jadrax]

The theme taken by the wizard grants two cantrips. While I'm aware we have a playtest version of it, I see no reason why a rogue could not take the current version of the theme.

Yes. Mike Mearls tweeted last night that all backgrounds and Themes are not tied to classes and you can mix and match as you like.

 

[Melkor]

After our initial play test, it did feel a bit like the Wizard and the Cleric of Pelor were both a bit overpowered.

 

[Sir Robilar]

We playtested it yesterday and the wizard's Ray of Frost was extremely powerful. The party encountered the Owlbear and the wizard saved the day by freezing it (with a roll of 7+) almost every round. The others stood away from the owlbear and attacked with ranged attacks, slowly grinding down it's 110 hit points. Twice the wizard failed his ranged attack and the owlbear did a little damage. If the players had stood away more than 30 feet from him, he wouldn't even have managed to do that, since he couldn't have reached them in one round. All in all, the fight felt very boring. I hope they'll change Ray of Frost.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yes. If any minor spell is overpowered, it may be ray of frost.

What about: you can´t cast the same minor spell every round? As it needs some seconds to reform the memorization in your mind.
This way, you can´t spam the same spell over and over again and have to at least switch around.
IMHO all spells only make problems, if they are used every single round.

 

[mcintma]

We playtested it yesterday and the wizard's Ray of Frost was extremely powerful. The party encountered the Owlbear and the wizard saved the day by freezing it (with a roll of 7+) almost every round. The others stood away from the owlbear and attacked with ranged attacks, slowly grinding down it's 110 hit points. Twice the wizard failed his ranged attack and the owlbear did a little damage. If the players had stood away more than 30 feet from him, he wouldn't even have managed to do that, since he couldn't have reached them in one round. All in all, the fight felt very boring. I hope they'll change Ray of Frost.

I personally think they need to weaken these cantrips, but also un-nerf the 'real spells' (the ones that are pale shadows of 1e) so they're actually worth using in lieu of the cantrips. Un-nerfing also means bringing back things like spider climb, alter self, levitate, summon monster - which I'm assuming are out of the system based on Mearls' comments that he wanted a small spell list for wizards - but I could be wrong and this could just be a playtest subset.

 

[tuxgeo]

Yes. Mike Mearls tweeted last night that all backgrounds and Themes are not tied to classes and you can mix and match as you like.

Quoted For Emphasis. (QFE?)
Thank you for being the bearer of more good news.

(Alas, cannot give you XP right now. . . .)

 

[Melkor]

We playtested it yesterday and the wizard's Ray of Frost was extremely powerful. The party encountered the Owlbear and the wizard saved the day by freezing it (with a roll of 7+) almost every round. The others stood away from the owlbear and attacked with ranged attacks, slowly grinding down it's 110 hit points. Twice the wizard failed his ranged attack and the owlbear did a little damage. If the players had stood away more than 30 feet from him, he wouldn't even have managed to do that, since he couldn't have reached them in one round. All in all, the fight felt very boring. I hope they'll change Ray of Frost.

This was the same thing we encountered during the playtest, substituting the Ogre for the Owlbear. A bit too powerful. I think they should tie the results of the Ray of Frost to the targets hit points like they do for the Sleep spell.

 

[jadrax]

This was the same thing we encountered during the playtest, substituting the Ogre for the Owlbear. A bit too powerful. I think they should tie the results of the Ray of Frost to the targets hit points like they do for the Sleep spell.

That might work. I think it works fine for encounters with more than one opponent, but for solo monsters its an issue.

But then that has been true of many spells in the past. The main problem is fighters where you have a group of pc's take on one creature are often fundamentally uninteresting.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

This was the same thing we encountered during the playtest, substituting the Ogre for the Owlbear. A bit too powerful. I think they should tie the results of the Ray of Frost to the targets hit points like they do for the Sleep spell.

maybe xx hp per wizard level. Only reduce speed by 10ft or so when against monsters that have higher hp. (Just tossing out some thoughts)

 

[Melkor]

maybe xx hp per wizard level. Only reduce speed by 10ft or so when against monsters that have higher hp. (Just tossing out some thoughts)

I like it.