I'd be willing to put my 3.0 14th level Wizard against any psion, any day of the week. The 3.5 shift would reduce his power somewhat, but from what I recall, it wouldn't be a significant amount; most of his spells that I looked up were untouched. He was a walking death machine, able to raise most of his defensive spells in a single round with a Quickened spell and a Contingencied spell, and then laying out an entire spectrum of fire, acid, sonic, and electrical damage. Losing Mass Haste would put a dent in the speed at which he could lay out his attack spells, but I can assure you from ample combat experience that his hefty number of offensive spells covered every variety of threats the party ever encountered.
At first brush when 3.0 came out, I wasn't keen on the wizards at all. Why would anyone want to play a class where you're burdened by memorized spells? Ah, but then I actually played one, and found that once I got up in levels, I could memorize so many spells that I had more than enough room for a wide variety of utility spells while still packing in ample raw offense. My wizard envies no one.
To be frank, a point by point analysis between casting classes would be largely futile. My wizard has never once exhausted his compliment of spells in a day. Whenever the party has run through enough things that his spell list has taken a sizable dent, they've gone through enough hitpoints and clerics' heals that they rest out the remainder of the day anyways. Running the math to show that class X can do Y damage if they devote every point/slot to spell Z is all well and good, but meaningless in actual play.
A sorceror could outdamage my wizard. Hands down. I only have a dozen or so attack spells memorized at any given time, so if a sorceror burned all of their slots to cast thirty fireballs, they've outdamaged me. Kudos to them, if there's ever a dungeon where someone needs to toss thirty fireballs, they're clearly on top. And yet, I'm not sitting around gnashing my teeth and pulling my hair out, because there's absolutely no situation that I've ever run across to require that kind of focus on mindless offense. I'm happy with my spells, and am comfortable with the sacrifice of offense that I made to have a versatile number of utility spells always at hand.
A psion could conceivably have a good amount of utility powers available and still be able to toss thirty fireballs, granted. However, the odds of one of them needing to toss thirty fireballs is the same as my needing to do it: nil. In a real-world situation, a psion would be casting attacks and utility powers at a ratio equal to my wizard, and would burn their power points at an amount equal to my burning spell slots, and at the end of the day would be in exactly the same situation as a wizard. So I see no problem whatsoever.
I do, however, feel that sorcerors are too weak at present. They strike me as being pretty clearly inferior to a psion, having the similar strength of flexibility but the crippling weakness of being awful with metamagic; taking away Haste hurt them badly. 3.5 sorcerors need a boost in my opinion. That does not make the psions overpowered, but rather makes the sorcerors underpowered.
At first brush when 3.0 came out, I wasn't keen on the wizards at all. Why would anyone want to play a class where you're burdened by memorized spells? Ah, but then I actually played one, and found that once I got up in levels, I could memorize so many spells that I had more than enough room for a wide variety of utility spells while still packing in ample raw offense. My wizard envies no one.
To be frank, a point by point analysis between casting classes would be largely futile. My wizard has never once exhausted his compliment of spells in a day. Whenever the party has run through enough things that his spell list has taken a sizable dent, they've gone through enough hitpoints and clerics' heals that they rest out the remainder of the day anyways. Running the math to show that class X can do Y damage if they devote every point/slot to spell Z is all well and good, but meaningless in actual play.
A sorceror could outdamage my wizard. Hands down. I only have a dozen or so attack spells memorized at any given time, so if a sorceror burned all of their slots to cast thirty fireballs, they've outdamaged me. Kudos to them, if there's ever a dungeon where someone needs to toss thirty fireballs, they're clearly on top. And yet, I'm not sitting around gnashing my teeth and pulling my hair out, because there's absolutely no situation that I've ever run across to require that kind of focus on mindless offense. I'm happy with my spells, and am comfortable with the sacrifice of offense that I made to have a versatile number of utility spells always at hand.
A psion could conceivably have a good amount of utility powers available and still be able to toss thirty fireballs, granted. However, the odds of one of them needing to toss thirty fireballs is the same as my needing to do it: nil. In a real-world situation, a psion would be casting attacks and utility powers at a ratio equal to my wizard, and would burn their power points at an amount equal to my burning spell slots, and at the end of the day would be in exactly the same situation as a wizard. So I see no problem whatsoever.
I do, however, feel that sorcerors are too weak at present. They strike me as being pretty clearly inferior to a psion, having the similar strength of flexibility but the crippling weakness of being awful with metamagic; taking away Haste hurt them badly. 3.5 sorcerors need a boost in my opinion. That does not make the psions overpowered, but rather makes the sorcerors underpowered.
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A lot has changed compared to that.
