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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5487918" data-attributes="member: 54877">For me, the problem is not the power directly, but the amount of work required to deal with its lack or excess. And either lack or excess can occur easily with the wizard, depending on edition, character level, magic items, etc. For example, in our last d20 game (Arcana Evolved), we had one of the more strategically minded players as the main wizard type (AE magister). But he used this understanding so as to try and not overshadow the rest of the party. (That is, he deliberately made a personality that he could play "in character" in a non-optimal mechanical way.) Meanwhile, also aware of the potential problems, I was running the game to try and give him a challenge. This worked well enough at first, but every level it got harder and harder, for both him and me. By 13th, it was shot. My brain was fried (with the game, and d20, and some external stuff) and the opportunities to dominate were so obvious that even the non-strategically minded players saw them clear as daylight.  Likewise, when I've got the energy and will to do it, I can run a group of, say, RC Basic, and keep low-level wizard mortality no worse than the rest of the group, given some reasonable, competent play. But it takes work to do it. Sometimes I'm up for it, and sometimes I'm not. So for me, the question is not can the DM and players compensate for a "glass cannon". They most assuredly can. The question is rather, is the compensation always required to achieve some minimal level of satisfaction, and is there a better way to handle some of the work? I can multiple and divide large numbers with pen and paper. Ask me to do it day in and day out, I'd just as soon use a calculator or spreadsheet, thank you. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Edit: There are times when the challenge of juggling the power is actively fun. In that AE game, I had a blast with it, right up until I didn't. It is merely that the combination of that external stuff hitting at the same time as the higher levels made this very abrupt and obvious. (I was also on math team in high school, which means I did math for fun. There was, even then, a time and a place, though.)</blockquote>

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