My Surprising Revelation
Posted by Stupid Ranger at 12:26 AM
I was working on Better Characters: Weapons post when I came to realize a startling fact: I have never played a true stand-alone spellcaster. Now, I have played spellcasters: clerics, bards, even a sorceress, but I have never allowed them to rely solely on their magical abilities.
I suppose the reason I was so surprised is that I've always felt that spellcasters are so powerful: how many times has a fireball turned the tides in a difficult battle? How impressive is the power behind a lightning bolt? I hold spellcasters with great respect, as a player and a character. And yet, I have never played the character wielding these spells.
After coming to this revelation, I talked it over with Dante, who, of course, pointed out the very obvious: I don't trust magic because it eventually runs out. After you've used up your spells for the day, you're done until tomorrow, and the best you can hope to achieve is some minor damage from whatever simple weapon you have at your disposal.
So, my resolution, which I state before you all, is to play a true spellcaster in the next new campaign. I'll let you know how it goes! ;)
I suppose the reason I was so surprised is that I've always felt that spellcasters are so powerful: how many times has a fireball turned the tides in a difficult battle? How impressive is the power behind a lightning bolt? I hold spellcasters with great respect, as a player and a character. And yet, I have never played the character wielding these spells.
After coming to this revelation, I talked it over with Dante, who, of course, pointed out the very obvious: I don't trust magic because it eventually runs out. After you've used up your spells for the day, you're done until tomorrow, and the best you can hope to achieve is some minor damage from whatever simple weapon you have at your disposal.
So, my resolution, which I state before you all, is to play a true spellcaster in the next new campaign. I'll let you know how it goes! ;)
Labels: Musings and Anecdotes, Stupid Ranger
3 Comments:
I think my friend (and long time player) Math is a bit like you. He likes the idea of magic but being rather conservative, he dislikes the idea of running out of resources.
He's playing a Highly modified version of the Duskblade class and we hope he'll like it.
However, he can't quite get the idea of the new fighters in the book of nine swords (Bo9S) out of his head. Last game, Eric, playing a Bo9S crusader, showed us how he could use and re-use his cool combat maneuvers from encounter to encounter and that makes spellcasters a bit envious.
One of 4e promises is that a Wizard/Sorcerer that has cast all his spells will still be at 80% of it's potential power... that I'm looking forward to see.
So SR, maybe you should give the Bo9S a look (the Swordsage class comes to mind) or get Dante to switch to 4e next summer.
My 2 cents...
It's not much of a leap of faith, but I've recently played a Warlock, who carries nothing resembling a weapon. Of course eldritch stuff doesn't exactly run out, but it's still oddly different to rely on magic entirely.
Thanks for the recommendations, guys! I'll have to do some exploring on these while we play our Act 2 session (where we're playing characters from a previous campaign).
One of the things I tried in the past was playing an elf sorceress. She had the elf weapon proficiency with the longbow, so she had a nice weapon. But I picked spells that complemented her longbow attack instead of spell that would do damage themselves.
I'm interested to see the changes to the wizard/sorcerer in 4e. That might be something that would work better for me.
Anything else you think of that has worked for you or your other players in the past is always appreciated! :)
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