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Worlds of Design: Who Needs Spellcasters Anyway?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7802384" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>Damage done, especially single-target, sustained, DPR is an easy way to calculate a fairly relevant measure of power, but it misses a lot. It misses the aggregate effects and soft control of AE damage, it misses /everything else the character can do with his damaging resource besides damage/, and it misses everything the character /can't/ do besides damage. </p><p></p><p> The difference with casters from early to late D&D is not in how overwhelming their power was/is, but in how easy it is to bring that overwhelming power to bear. In the early days there was many a hurdle to be cleared before you could push that "I win" button, you had to /know/ the right spell, memorize the right spell, have the proper components, pick the right time to cast it, stand still & cast it without interruption, and maybe even count on the target failing a save that only got easier for them as they leveled. But skilled play was also a big deal back in the day, and skilled players /made/ all that happen, one way or another.</p><p>Latter era D&D you prettymuch can mash you "I win buttons," little stands in your way. You don't need to be /as/ detail-oriented a bean-counter, nor have your rules-lawyer case-law memorized, nor be as masterful a DM-manipulator. And where blind button-mashing won't cut it, system mastery should do the trick.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Anyway, I think the OP's point is off, anyway. Look at the broader genre, from myth/legend to high fantasy to S&S, to cinema. It's not all magic solving all problems all the time. It's heroes, maybe with some magical help or at least advice, here & there, armed with weapons & armor, perhaps faith, and a great deal of courage, slaying the dragon or foiling the evil sorcerer or whatever. The stumbling block we seem to have when it comes to the fantasy side of the hobby is in accepting the genre, whole, rather than picking & choosing. Science Fiction is usually a matter of accepting one big 'what if' and holding everything else equal. Fantasy & sci-fi are closely linked, and a lot of us like both, but the fantasy paradigm is not the same, it's not one forward-looking, logical-consequences, 'what if,' it's a whole 'nuther /kind/ of world.</p><p></p><p>Approach fantasy like science fiction and you get a "what if there was 'magic'" proposition and the forward-looking logical consequence, of course, is inevitably "magic totally dominates."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7802384, member: 996"] Damage done, especially single-target, sustained, DPR is an easy way to calculate a fairly relevant measure of power, but it misses a lot. It misses the aggregate effects and soft control of AE damage, it misses /everything else the character can do with his damaging resource besides damage/, and it misses everything the character /can't/ do besides damage. The difference with casters from early to late D&D is not in how overwhelming their power was/is, but in how easy it is to bring that overwhelming power to bear. In the early days there was many a hurdle to be cleared before you could push that "I win" button, you had to /know/ the right spell, memorize the right spell, have the proper components, pick the right time to cast it, stand still & cast it without interruption, and maybe even count on the target failing a save that only got easier for them as they leveled. But skilled play was also a big deal back in the day, and skilled players /made/ all that happen, one way or another. Latter era D&D you prettymuch can mash you "I win buttons," little stands in your way. You don't need to be /as/ detail-oriented a bean-counter, nor have your rules-lawyer case-law memorized, nor be as masterful a DM-manipulator. And where blind button-mashing won't cut it, system mastery should do the trick. Anyway, I think the OP's point is off, anyway. Look at the broader genre, from myth/legend to high fantasy to S&S, to cinema. It's not all magic solving all problems all the time. It's heroes, maybe with some magical help or at least advice, here & there, armed with weapons & armor, perhaps faith, and a great deal of courage, slaying the dragon or foiling the evil sorcerer or whatever. The stumbling block we seem to have when it comes to the fantasy side of the hobby is in accepting the genre, whole, rather than picking & choosing. Science Fiction is usually a matter of accepting one big 'what if' and holding everything else equal. Fantasy & sci-fi are closely linked, and a lot of us like both, but the fantasy paradigm is not the same, it's not one forward-looking, logical-consequences, 'what if,' it's a whole 'nuther /kind/ of world. Approach fantasy like science fiction and you get a "what if there was 'magic'" proposition and the forward-looking logical consequence, of course, is inevitably "magic totally dominates." [/QUOTE]
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