New DM

[FleetlordAtvar]

I'm an inexperienced DM trying to get my friends started on a 3.5 campaign, and I have two major problems.
The first is that one of the prospective players is an absolute pyromaniac playing some sort of spellcaster, and since he's played a bit of 4e as well, he doesn't like the idea of being able to run out of spells. How can I ensure he has enough destructive capability to keep him satisfied?
The other is that players are far more fragile in 3.5 than in 4e (or so it seems to me), and I'm not really sure how to keep them alive while challenging them. Any general advice in this regard?

[eggynack]

Well, if the guy just wants to shoot stuff all day, maybe you should suggest a warlock from complete arcane, maybe PrCing out into hellfire warlock from Fiendish Codex II. Shooting magic all day is the warlock's whole shtick, and shooting things that burn hotter all day is the hellfire warlock's whole shtick. Maybe suggest one of the ways to stop the con-loss from hellfire if he goes that route. The classic is a binder from Tome of Magic binding Naberius I don't know much about comparative fragility in the two systems, but well built parties can usually take on monsters above their CR without dying. Just try tossing some even CR monsters at them, see how things work out, and modulate from there.

[Ravitiate]

Reserve Feat (Fiery Burst) fits perfectly. As long as your dear pyromaniac doesn't cast his last fiery 2nd lvl+ spell he can spend a standard action to create a 5-foot radius burst of fire at a range of 30 feet. The damage is 1d6 points of damage per level of the highest level fire spell available (reflex half). He also gains +1 CL with Fire Spells which fits nicely.

[VariSami]

There is also Dragonfire Adept from Dragon Magic: breath weapons all day long. Essentially it is just a different take on the Warlock, though, but there is a huge difference in flavor. And although it is probably sub-optimal, there is the Dragon Shaman from PHBII as well. And while I am not really sure, there is probably some kind of a fire blast for a Reserve feat from Complete Mage. Just listing a few possibilities.

Edit: Nath'd regarding the reserve feat.

[eggynack]

Reserve Feat (Fiery Burst) fits perfectly. As long as your dear pyromaniac doesn't cast his last fiery 2nd lvl+ spell he can spend a standard action to create a 5-foot radius burst of fire at a range of 30 feet. The damage is 1d6 points of damage per level of the highest level fire spell available (reflex half). He also gains +1 CL with Fire Spells which fits nicely.
Ooh, yeah, forgot about this one. Reserve feats might totally be his style. Show him the whole rainbow of reservation (like a regular rainbow, but bigger and with muted colors) and let it guide him to somewhat greater heights of consistent casting. It also frees up most of his slots to not be explosion spells, which may give him the opportunity to learn how utterly busted casting can be. Whether this is a good or bad thing is for only your heart to choose.

[Sylthia]

Ooh, yeah, forgot about this one. Reserve feats might totally be his style. Show him the whole rainbow of reservation (like a regular rainbow, but bigger and with muted colors) and let it guide him to somewhat greater heights of consistent casting. It also frees up most of his slots to not be explosion spells, which may give him the opportunity to learn how utterly busted casting can be. Whether this is a good or bad thing is for only your heart to choose.

What's the source for those feats?

[Amidus Drexel]

What's the source for those feats?

They're in Complete Mage.

[Rogue Shadows]

The other is that players are far more fragile in 3.5 than in 4e (or so it seems to me), and I'm not really sure how to keep them alive while challenging them. Any general advice in this regard?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sorry, sorry, it's just that - no matter what I throw at them, my players' characters won't die except under the most contrived circumstances. Not that I'm trying to kill them, so much as they keep throwing themselves into suicidal situations and living.

It's so common that I've added a DM Rule -1 that supersedes Rule 0 ("if it doesn't exist, make it up")

DM Rule -1: Even when you think you are, you are never challenging your players enough.

[Amidus Drexel]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sorry, sorry, it's just that - no matter what I throw at them, my players won't die except under the most contrived circumstances. Not that I'm trying to kill them, so much as they keep throwing themselves into suicidal situations and living.

It's so common that I've added a DM Rule -1 that supersedes Rule 0 ("if it doesn't exist, make it up")

DM Rule -1: Even when you think you are, you are never challenging your players enough.

Your players are really lucky, then. Mine seemed to get themselves killed (and I mean that literally) with alarming frequency. :smallamused:

[Rogue Shadows]

Yeah, yeah, I used "players" instead of "characters" again, you know what I meant...

But yeah, seriously. Something I've learned as a DM is that I'm one guy, with typically 4-6 players sitting on the other side of the DM screen, and I'm also not the smartest one in the room, just one of the better storytellers.

I will never be able to outthink them all enough to make an encounter challenging if I limit myself strictly to the RAW. So I stopped looking at challenge ratings and hit die and so forth and so on some time ago and just basically throw monsters/trap/circumstance/whatever at them based on how interesting I think the monster/trap/circumstance/whatever is and see what happens. With the sole exception of dragons and the tarrasque, which I do limit to CR-appropriate encounters. Usually.