Your Spellcasting Wish For 3.5 ?

[Edena_of_Neith]

I realize that an awful lot of people have some real problems with the magical systems presented in the game.
I think of magic as a wild card: spells invariably get used for things for which they were not intended by the designers, and what people call Game Balance is disrupted.

Fireball, quoted above, is a good example of a spell that can be used in various creative (read: dastardly, and sometimes Game Breaking) ways.
This is especially true if the spellcaster is evil.

Nothing like melting the 20 enemies facing you into pools of burning fat in one brilliant flash of light.
And burning down the entire town or forest in the process.

 

[Tsyr]

So you want to 1) nerf all utility spells; and 2) nerf all combat spells. I suppose the spellcasters can spend those spell slots on gust of wind or gentle repose, or something equally useful.

D00d, why not just come right out and ban wizards? It'll save an awful lot of beating round the bush.


Hong "ALWAYS beats his bush" Ooi

Well, in fairness, I can *almost* understand having something against Knock, if you play a theif alot... *almost*. The theif, of course, can try to open a lock an infinate number of times, a wizard cannot.

However, Knock is a staple of DnD... and, really, of fantasy wizards, to an extent. I mean, shoot, didn't you see Gandalf try a knock spell on the door to Moria?

As for other utility spells... fly, and the like... I may not use vancian magic anymore, but I still want them there as an option, darnit!

 

[Tonguez]

As for other utility spells... fly, and the like... I may not use vancian magic anymore, but I still want them there as an option, darnit!

Hence my use of the term 'Utility belt' (ie those spells which are cheap replacements for skills - things like Locate object, Legend Lore).

Fly is not a skill avaiable to most and so imho not a 'utility belt' spell. And I have no problem with the fly spell overall

 

[Gez]

D00d, why not just go all the way and ban wizards? It'll save an awful lot of beating round the bush.

That's an awfully good idea. After the disappearance of the wizard, people will suddenly discover that, shock, horror, clerics also cast spells ! And druids too ! And they have better HD, better BAB, better AC, better saves, and better spells too ! And so much, much, much more spells !

Damn, those wizards sure are overpowered. Everything they can do, a druid or cleric can do better, but none of the antimagic crowd ever gripe about clerics, so they are probably fine.

 

[Hecatæus]

What if there were just fighters and thieves?

Also how adaptable to a fantasy environment is D20Modern?

 

[jonesy]

Where is the "I like them just the way they are" option?

 

[Barcode]

High magic and D&D go together like flies and the Undead. You can't change this in 3.5 or any edition. You can deliberately tone it down by limiting spellcasting PC's in your campaign, but don't mess with the main system.

That said, I'd love to see a low magic sourcebook or campaign setting that has rules for running a balanced, low magic (fantasy, not d20 Modern) campaign. Anyone know of one?

 

[MarauderX]

Could clerics get any more powerful? Compared to wizards and sorcerers of equal levels, they have far more power. Armor AND spells. Spontaneous cure/cause wounds. d6 HP. Good BAB ladder. Etc. Only downside I can see is the lack of skill points.

As a DM, I have enemy spellcasters try to outthink and out plan the PCs. Usually the spellcasters are on their own turf, so you would think they would work things out perfectly for their spell selections, as well as escape routes. Un-intellegent critters should get slaughtered more often than a wily illusionist used to slipping out of trap after trap. I hate it when a mage gets stuck being the long range artillary and precision assassin for the party when she is usually the most versitile with spells.

Of course I like to use spellcasters, and perhaps I could be needing some therapy.

 

[Gez]

Where is the "I like them just the way they are" option?

It's the last one. Look better.


What I would like to see are the few people having voted for things like "They should be NPC only" or "Only elves should be spellcaster" explain their vote.

Unless they answered this only because they were as serious in their vote as I was in elaborating the options...

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Hence my use of the term 'Utility belt' (ie those spells which are cheap replacements for skills - things like Locate object, Legend Lore).

Fly is not a skill avaiable to most and so imho not a 'utility belt' spell. And I have no problem with the fly spell overall

I agree with this. i don't like the replace a skill spells. And I don't like the self combat boost ones very much. Tensers transformation is a good example of this. A stat boost, or a minor boost I don't mind, but the I turn into a fighter spell doesn't sit well with me.

Now some I'd say would be wierd to see go, invisibility is a replace the hide skill spell and yet its such a classic of fantasy books that not ahivng it would seem very odd to me.