Free psychic powers: A pretty elegant solution to many 3.5 problems

[TSED]

I've been running this as a houserule for a while now, and honestly? It's incredible. The specifics are as follows:

1) You gain the powers known of a wilder, keyed off of charisma.
2) These powers do not have psionics / magic transparency. If you take a regular psionics class (like, say, a psion... or a wilder?!) THOSE powers do have transparency.
3) Put "concentration" as a class skill for everybody.
4) You can still take Expanded Knowledge as normal.
5) You're not technically a psionic entity unless you have power points as normal (the freeby powers don't count).

Yep. That's pretty much it. To handle PP, either give them PP of a wilder of their level or give them infinite pp with a chance to daze self that you can finaggle.


The way I'm CURRENTLY running it, your ECL / 3 = PP you can manifest without risk. For every PP over that, there's a 5% chance to daze self for 1 round and to cause a penalty (equal to 1 + extra PP) to everything for [extra pp] rounds. For example, a 6th level character can manifest 2pp for free, but a 6pp power has a 20% chance of dazing self + causing a -5 penalty to everything for 4 rounds.


Now you might be asking what kinds of problems this solves. It's pretty great, really:

1) "We need a healer" is obviated quite substantially. If there's no healer, people just grab a self-heal power (assuming level 6 or higher) and you're good to go. Plus there's always vigor and cheap healing magic items.

2) Players can diversify their characters quite easily. You can take the exact same rogue build, but one who focuses on things like catfall and skate will feel very different from one that focuses on things like Cloud Mind and Sense Link.

3) If somebody wants to play a blaster, they can do so quite easily. They will never be USELESS, per say, as they either have utility around from either of the classes or enough blasting mojo to last the entire adventuring day. Plus, psionic nukes have that lovely "choose your own energy type" thing going on.

3) You can pull out all kinds of neat tricks to save an encounter from being destroyed by something you overlooked. They're abusing Rings of Darkhidden and Control Light? Well, enemies can have control light, too, and effectively cancel it. Lucky divination or dispel roll might let the PCs lop off the BBEG before the story can unfold properly? Vigor! Henchman with Dispelling Buffer! Trace Teleport! You name it!

4) Lower-tier characters have the powerful caster tricks at their disposal, but are still fundamentally [whatever they are]. Higher tier characters simply have another fallback option, and generally don't gain nearly as much.

Now, there is one minor problem I've noticed: sometimes the players hyper-focus and still have that "lack of breadth" problem that this ostensibly solves. "I wanna be a tank" Paladin McConstitution might go Inertial Armour + Force Screen + Biofeedback + etc. They then are really tough but, again, are still hyper focused and incapable of doing anything outside of their focus. Solution: point it out, hope for the best.

Also, power point draining effects. I haven't codified anything concrete there, but I tend to put it as a penalty to the effective PP being used in a power for 'eyeballed' rounds. IE, if it drains 4 pp, an unaugmented Empty Mind manifested in the next 2 rounds would count as 5 pp, and so on and so forth. This is only a problem if you don't grant 'effectively infinite pp' but instead grant PP of a wilder.


Thoughts?

[Malroth]

Throwing out transparency can create a ton of problems and infinite PP will mean instant win for anyone familiar with Psionic action economy abuse, besides those 2 problems the wilder gestault works fairly well.

[TSED]

The biggest problem with thrown out transparency is things with low HP and HD that rely on SR to keep themselves from being wizard-gibbed. The solution is pretty simple there, though - just have one of their powers be a PR-granter.

Action economy abuse falls flat because of the self daze that they WILL succumb to. And when I say the penalty applies to everything, I don't just mean to-hit and ac and saves. Caster level checks, skill checks, ability checks, damage rolls (even for aoes), etc. (Also, since you're not psionic without taking actual class levels and whatnot, you can't abuse linked power because you're not actually psionically focused). Without those, it's not so bad - they need to spend a feat to get Schism, for example, and nobody has ever even entertained the notion of that, yet.

It's not a full on wilder gestalt, either. Class features don't happen, saves don't happen, class skills don't happen, etc. It's just powers known (and possibly power points).

[Psyren]

Melee classes are already MAD - now, they need Cha on top of everything else or they fall even further behind.

I would key it off a stat everybody keeps positive anyway, like Con.

[sideswipe]

Melee classes are already MAD - now, they need Cha on top of everything else or they fall even further behind.

I would key it off a stat everybody keeps positive anyway, like Con.

only people who are scared have a con above 3!

[sideswipe]

if you want a balanced game then you have to have only 6-7 classes. wizard, cleric, druid, artificer, psion, archivist, erudite.

the whole point is that it is not balanced. if someone wants to play a duel wield cha based fighter then let them, just tell them that they will be very underpowered if the rest of the party is the above classes.

the problems are innate. you can vary the rules to try and help mundanes and fix holes, but the casters will just continue to exploit those rules too.

i like 3.5, holes and all.

plus if you want to put casters on the back foot, make all encounters be against high save, high spell res, almost magic immune creatures. then the fighter steps forward and says "well you guys had a good run! its my turn now!"

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'd give 'em a lower pp pool-- say, that of a PsiWar-- and key it off Con, as Psyren suggested. (Or perhaps one mental stat of your choice) Other than that, it's a pretty cool idea. I like it.

[Trundlebug]

Yup key it off con. I do something similar as a nod to 2E. Everyone gets a psi or incarnum ability/feat rolled at random. Basically Hidden Talent or shape soulmeld with a few PP/E.

[gooddragon1]

Not sure it's really a problem because not all powers allow saves and low level powers can be augmented so you don't really need all that much charisma (but it allows some who invest in it to get more out of it and discourages charisma as a dump stat). But I guess it depends on power level. What an interesting variant altogether. I like it very much.

[Vaz]

This can be pretty much broken wide open. Anything with access to Metamorphosis or any psionic equivalent, let alone having StP Erudites be existant within the settings can allow you to pick up spells 2 levels lower.

Now, combine that with something like a Warblade 10/Eternal Blade 10, combined with Greater Metamorphosis and Body Outside Body.

I'd say just take a leaf out of Tome of Battle and give everyone half progression/psi-war/divine mind progression with access to an alternative list (perhaps a single Mantle from Complete Psi?).

[TSED]

Not sure it's really a problem because not all powers allow saves and low level powers can be augmented so you don't really need all that much charisma (but it allows some who invest in it to get more out of it and discourages charisma as a dump stat). But I guess it depends on power level. What an interesting variant altogether. I like it very much.

This, exactly! If you use cha as a dump stat, just don't take things that have DCs. Melee are mad and thus can't spare the cha, you say? Well then! Good thing they just take self buffs.


This can be pretty much broken wide open. Anything with access to Metamorphosis or any psionic equivalent, let alone having StP Erudites be existant within the settings can allow you to pick up spells 2 levels lower.

Now, combine that with something like a Warblade 10/Eternal Blade 10, combined with Greater Metamorphosis and Body Outside Body.

I'd say just take a leaf out of Tome of Battle and give everyone half progression/psi-war/divine mind progression with access to an alternative list (perhaps a single Mantle from Complete Psi?).

Oh yeah, I confess it's not really meant for higher op gameplay. I, unfortunately, am the most optimization-minded person amongst everyone I play with and so I'm the most likely to pull a stunt like that at all. However, keep in mind the following:
1) You, as a DM, should probably ban or incredi-nerf all of the polymorph type stuff anyway.
2) That costs a feat, yo. Earliest you can actually get it is level 12 without dipping psion or psywar for a free psionic feat - ML 9 = 4th level powers = you don't qualify for Expanded Knowledge (Metamorphosis). Most games are falling apart or going up against the end boss by then, in my experience, so it's not quite so bad.
3) Dispel Psionics can be EVERYWHERE.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Linked Synchronicity for wizards, yes please!

[Muggins]

Linked Synchronicity for wizards, yes please!
Ooh, let's give it to Sorcerers and Warmages too!

In all seriousness, this doesn't work. Not only is there the issue of what happens if someone rolls a Wilder, but there's also the fact that you haven't scaled this according to the classes of your players. "Having another option to fall back on for casters" is, essentially, what makes them powerful in the first place. This just makes that problem worse (at least in the "grand scheme" of high-OP play).

[AnonymousPepper]

Why not just base it off a preexisting model for this - the Athasian human race in Dragon 319, from Dark Sun?

It's an LA+1 race that gets a specific PP progression and gains a new power of its choice known every few levels.

Drop the LA and make that your gestalt.

[Elderand]

Oh yeah, I confess it's not really meant for higher op gameplay. I, unfortunately, am the most optimization-minded person amongst everyone I play with and so I'm the most likely to pull a stunt like that at all.

I'm sorry to say this but then you have a "solution" that isn't one at all.
You're playing with peoples who are unlikely to cause problems anyway and by your own admission it's not going to work at higher optimization level.

The thing is, higher optimization is where the "problems" of dnd start showing up/being easily noticeable.

Is it an interesting variant ? Possibly.
Is it a solution to dnd problem at all ? No, not at all. It doesn't even help with the christmass tree effect because items are less likely to suffer from disjunction/suppression from dispelling than powers are to be psionicly dispelled.

[Psyren]

You don't need high op for this to be useful. Even just giving Hustle or Dimension Hop to the melee x/day lets them pounce on round 1, full-attack thereafter and pounce again when they're ready to take on the next target. And the rogue will enjoy Bite of the Wolf or Concealing Amorpha.

[BWR]

Lemme get this straight: the way to fix the mundane/caster discrepancy is by turning the mundanes into casters as well?

[Psyren]

Lemme get this straight: the way to fix the mundane/caster discrepancy is by turning the mundanes into casters as well?

Ding ding ding! :smalltongue:

*kicks anthill* This is the approach taken by ToB and MoI after all. *runs*

[Doug Lampert]

The thing is, higher optimization is where the "problems" of dnd start showing up/being easily noticeable.

How bad does your optimization need to be for a fighter to be competitive with a druid? The default animal companion list is right there in the class description. So is the spell-casting and wild-shape and spontaneous summons.

But it doesn't need druids. First 3.0 campaign I ever ran with horribly unoptimized characters the imbalances were highly noticeable by level 7 or so. All it took was several people playing Clerics and none of them being heal-bots because that wasn't what their particular gods would want them to do.

(None of us had been playing D&D immediately prior to 3.0, I don't think healbot even occurred to any of us as a playstyle, why would anyone want to do that?)

We did craft out the wazoo, so if casters taking core caster feats and using them as intended is "optimzation" then we optimized, we also gave the clerics wisdom scores above 9! And we noticed that you could cooperate in crafting so each crafting feat need only be taken once. But that's all it took for the casters go grossly exceed the power of mundanes.

Similarly the game I was playing in at that time, the problems were again obvious by level 7 or so. You could MAKE a wand that gave you better attacks than anything a fighter type could do, and that still left your actual spells for if you really needed to do something. A level 5 pure cleric cohort was stronger than a level 7 paladin. Why is that? Same player and same person building them. Could it be that there's a problem with these classes?

After initial character creation NO ONE built a melee class, ever. Both DMs in both games we had PC clerics who used direct damage spells and level 1 and 2 buffs almost exclusively, and they were STILL obviously over the top better than the melee builds people with that level of optimization skill could come up with, even with casters buffing the melee.

At low opt, core only, melee is a sink for buff spells, clerics are a source for buff spells and can melee adequately, one of these is just plain better.

I'll ask again, how bad does your optimization need to be for a fighter to be competitive with a druid? Remember to apply the bad optimization to both classes and I don't think this level of optimization failure exists.

[Elderand]

I'll ask again, how bad does your optimization need to be for a fighter to be competitive with a druid? Remember to apply the bad optimization to both classes and I don't think this level of optimization failure exists.

Personal annecdote does not a data point make. And things exist wheter you believe in them or not. This isn't planescape.

Every week or so, on this very forum we see people who defend the monk, fighter or don't think cleric or druid are the best thing ever. Reguardless of your own experience or belief, those things do in fact happen. Funnily enough there are people who play dnd exactly as the developper envisionned, with a cleric who do healing or buff the fighter, wizard has glass canon artillery pieces and have no idea that caster supremacy is a thing or at least do not believe it happens as fast as it does. And twice as often we see people banning ToB for being overpowered.

For all those peoples this rule is useless as a fix because there was nothing to fix in the first place. And for everyone else it doesn't actually fix anything.

It does make for an interesting variant, but it's not original, darksun did something similar over 20 years ago.

[BWR]

It does make for an interesting variant, but it's not original, darksun did something similar over 20 years ago.
With the difference that ALL characters got wild talents, and they didn't advance.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Personal annecdote does not a data point make. [...]

[List of anectodes]You were saying? Look at the Druid's standard list of animal companions. Look at the summons. It, more than any other class, is overpowered just by using the features in a simple, suggested, straightforward fashion. The person playtesting the druid... literally didn't use the features.

The reason why monks and the like might seem overpowered at a particular table is because of differences in optimization. So all those anecdotes are more about a particular player optimizing his iffy class much more than everyone else at the table, if only by actually taking/doing things that improve his combat numbers. Ultimately, players are overpowered, but they're even more overpowered when you give them an insane class.

[Phelix-Mu]

This is not a bad idea at all. Especially if you allow widespread refluffing of the psionic powers so that they are, I dunno, let's call them blade magic or some such thing. Expansion? You don't actually get bigger, but you move around so fast that you gain all of the benefits of filling a bigger space, and your momentum lets you hit harder. Energy ray? It's actually mini-soulknife that you throw, enchanted with your totem animal's affiliated energy type. Clairvoyance? Your eldritch horror character's eyeball leaves his head and goes floating off to gaze into the lives of some far off people. Now that is the kind of fluff flexibility that I could really get behind in terms of generating character concepts and themes.

The only bit I have the trouble with is mandating it be Cha-based. I'd rather say something like "this 'manifesting' is based on one of the character's mental stats (player choice), but can not also be the key stat for some other form of casting or manifesting possessed by that character." This allows more flexibility for mundanes who often dump mental stats (or hopefully haven't dumped all of them), while preventing Cha-casters and other casters from doubling up and pumping one mental stat to be super SAD. If mundanes need more boost, allow non-casters to use any stat, mental or physical, to determine the DCs and bonus PP for the wilder-thingy.

The only other thing to consider is not allowing it to casters at all, or somehow making it more useful to mundanes, since few casters need a non-vancian backup plan beyond Reserve Feats and the like.

[gooddragon1]

How bad does your optimization need to be for a fighter to be competitive with a druid?

This question intrigues me...

Elf race
Quick Trait
Frail Flaw
Pathetic Flaw
Druid wisdom at 8
Int max all in profession (useless and useless variants), skill focus on these
Animal companion is an owl and never changes.
Boost Int at 4, 8, 12 etc
Dump con and strength and everything but int.
Con is now at 8-2 elf-2 pathetic = 4 which is a -3 modifier
-2 and -3 = -5 to HP at each level. 8-5=3 to start with average result of 0 each level gained.

Yeah. I can see a fighter having a chance then.

Note that an elven commoner with
Quick Trait
Frail Flaw
8 base con
will have
4-5 (min 0)= 0 HP at level 1 and will never gain hp unless he gains con. It's probable that he literally could not do an honest days work to save his life (because it might kill him).

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

This question intrigues me...

Elf race
Quick Trait
Frail Flaw
Pathetic Flaw
Druid wisdom at 8
Int max all in profession (useless and useless variants), skill focus on these
Animal companion is an owl and never changes.
Boost Int at 4, 8, 12 etc
Dump con and strength and everything but int.
Con is now at 8-2 elf-2 pathetic = 4 which is a -3 modifier
-2 and -3 = -5 to HP at each level. 8-5=3 to start with average result of 0 each level gained.

Yeah. I can see a fighter having a chance then.D_L's point was that, at equal levels of optimization, the druid will always be better. I also think he was talking about characters that would actually see play, not ones where you deliberately gimp yourself.

[Psyren]

Yeah. I can see a fighter having a chance then.

So basically, not being a druid :smalltongue:

[Prime32]

Rather than giving everyone psionics, I'd just give everyone spells as a caster of half their level. Rather than granting their own spell progression, wizards/sorcerers/etc. count as a higher level for determining what spells they get. (bards have a smaller increase, and paladins/rangers just grant you extra spells known)

Sort of like Magic Rating (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/magicRating.htm), but for everything instead of just caster level.

[gooddragon1]

So basically, not being a druid :smalltongue:

He can still wildshape...

[Snowbluff]

Melee classes are already MAD - now, they need Cha on top of everything else or they fall even further behind.

I would key it off a stat everybody keeps positive anyway, like Con.
I need to add a quote to the optimization timeline that points out that paladins aren't actually MAD. You only need enough Cha to
meet the minimum to cast a spell. When you have 13 base Cha, you can probably scrape up the 36kpg by level 18 for 9th level spells.

As for ToB MoI, yes it did, but it also added features to differentiate them. Better than adding a bonus versus fear as a "class feature" to combat "dead levels." :smalltongue:

[Svata]

This question intrigues me...

Elf race
Quick Trait
Frail Flaw
Pathetic Flaw
Druid wisdom at 8
Int max all in profession (useless and useless variants), skill focus on these
Animal companion is an owl and never changes.
Boost Int at 4, 8, 12 etc
Dump con and strength and everything but int.
Con is now at 8-2 elf-2 pathetic = 4 which is a -3 modifier
-2 and -3 = -5 to HP at each level. 8-5=3 to start with average result of 0 each level gained.

Yeah. I can see a fighter having a chance then.

Note that an elven commoner with
Quick Trait
Frail Flaw
8 base con
will have
4-5 (min 0)= 0 HP at level 1 and will never gain hp unless he gains con. It's probable that he literally could not do an honest days work to save his life (because it might kill him).


You apply your character's Constitution modifier to the following
Each roll of a Hit Die (though a penalty can never drop a result below 1- that is, a character always gains at least 1 hit point each time he or she advances a level).

Bolding mine, for emphasis.

[gooddragon1]

Bolding mine, for emphasis.


Frail

You are thin and weak of frame.
Effect

Subtract 1 from the number of hit points you gain at each level. This flaw can reduce the number of hit points you gain to 0 (but not below).
Special

You must have a Constitution of 4 or higher to take this flaw.

Objection!
http://gammalaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/phoenix-wright.jpg

[Kazyan]

For those of you keeping track at home: Every fix that affects both casters and mundanes will favor casters. (I have yet to see a counterexample that the boards don't nitpick to death.)

[Snowbluff]

For those of you keeping track at home: Every fix that affects both casters and mundanes will favor casters. (I have yet to see a counterexample that the boards don't nitpick to death.)

Yeah, pretty much. :l

[Malroth]

For those of you keeping track at home: Every fix that affects both casters and mundanes will favor casters. (I have yet to see a counterexample that the boards don't nitpick to death.)

except for "all players get a free wizard, cleric or sorcorer gestault (their choice)"

[Taelas]

This is neither elegant nor much of a solution.

[Eldest]

except for "all players get a free wizard, cleric or sorcorer gestault (their choice)"

So now the wizard can cast some spell spontaniously, for the price of getting a stat to 19 by level 18.

[Psyren]

For those of you keeping track at home: Every fix that affects both casters and mundanes will favor casters. (I have yet to see a counterexample that the boards don't nitpick to death.)

For myself, I don't care that spellcasters are better, as they really should be. My only concern is that non-spellcasters are "good enough" - i.e. they have at least the base competence to keep up with equal CR challenges without needing specific gear. ToB/PoW does a good job of that, as do Pact Magic and Incarna/Akasha/etc.

[Prime32]

For myself, I don't care that spellcasters are better, as they really should be.What is the meaning of character levels then? :smallconfused: They're supposed to represent characters who are equal in power.

If spellcasters are "better" then it should mean that they have an easy time getting to high levels, while high-level fighters are rare (which is actually supported already). If it takes a ridiculously awesome swordmaster to match the strength of an apprentice wizard... then only ridiculously awesome swordmasters should be partying with apprentice wizards, and both are the same level.

[Psyren]

What is the meaning of character levels then? :smallconfused: They're supposed to represent characters who are equal in power.

I see them as representing ability to handle minimum CRs, not equal to each other. D&D is not a PvP game. To me, level 3 means "with 3 levels in your base class and the wealth of a 3rd-level encounter, you should be able to handle CR 3 challenges." The fact that Class X at level 3 can do so faster or in more ways than Class Y at level 3 is irrelevant to me, so long as they can both do it.


If spellcasters are "better" then it should mean that they have an easy time getting to high levels, while high-level fighters are rare.

I don't understand this at all. Shouldn't it be the opposite? (Which in fact it is, going by the DMG population tables.) If magic were better - which it is - then the only reason everybody would not be a spellcaster would be if it were difficult in some way - which it is.

[Phelix-Mu]

I don't understand this at all. Shouldn't it be the opposite? (Which in fact it is, going by the DMG population tables.) If magic were better - which it is - then the only reason everybody would not be a spellcaster would be if it were difficult in some way - which it is.

But is it really that difficult to be a caster? Wizards just need a way to learn, and with all the scrolls floating about and wizards selling their services, even a pretty average-Int person could ostensibly learn Wiz 1, given time. Sor 1 depends on outside sources. Cleric 1 usually relies on a priesthood to teach the mystical ways of whatever, but in any case is up to the god who to recognize as a priest and who not to (much murkier if you worship a concept).

If there were a class in D&D that promised all manner of exploits from level 1, ending with cosmic power, I'd expect it to be by far the most common profession, even if most people in that profession weren't very good at it.

The whole concept of only special people are special and everyone else obviously lacks talent or would be a [spellcaster class] already seems pretty meta to me.

Not to pick on you, Psyren. Your comment just touched on something that has been on my mind lately.

[Psyren]

But is it really that difficult to be a caster? Wizards just need a way to learn, and with all the scrolls floating about and wizards selling their services, even a pretty average-Int person could ostensibly learn Wiz 1, given time. Sor 1 depends on outside sources. Cleric 1 usually relies on a priesthood to teach the mystical ways of whatever, but in any case is up to the god who to recognize as a priest and who not to (much murkier if you worship a concept).

While you can by the rules start on the path to wizardry with a mere 11 Int, this is much like deciding to be a heart surgeon because you barely passed 3rd grade biology. In other words, starting with less than a 16 - a score that puts you in the very top percentile of D&D society to begin with, above even the elite array - is a recipe for disappointment both for yourself and your instructors.

For other casters it is even worse. Sorcerers have little to no in-universe say over whether they get powers at all or how strong they will be. Clerics and druids must be pious, which involves not just learning but observing a whole host of rituals or at the very least being suitably contemplative over their ideals. Their powers can be denied by whatever force grants them at any time without their say, however rarely this may happen in practice.

Besides which, however easy it is for a PC to decide "I'm going to take a level of wizard," this is not in fact the in-universe explanation for what is happening. Recall that 3.5/PF are as much about being simulations as they are about being just games. For simplicity's sake, PCs - who are a minority of the population to begin with - are allowed to do this, but in reality they are merely glossing over all the study, piety or providence required to be any good at it.



If there were a class in D&D that promised all manner of exploits from level 1, ending with cosmic power, I'd expect it to be by far the most common profession, even if most people in that profession weren't very good at it.

The whole concept of only special people are special and everyone else obviously lacks talent or would be a [spellcaster class] already seems pretty meta to me.

As would I - but the DMG population tables do not bear this out. Clearly something is preventing people from just up and deciding to be wizards/sorcerers/clerics/druids, otherwise there would be many more of them. The benefits to magic are just too high for this not to be the case.


Not to pick on you, Psyren. Your comment just touched on something that has been on my mind lately.

No worries!

[Snowbluff]

What is the meaning of character levels then? :smallconfused: They're supposed to represent characters who are equal in power.

If spellcasters are "better" then it should mean that they have an easy time getting to high levels, while high-level fighters are rare (which is actually supported already). If it takes a ridiculously awesome swordmaster to match the strength of an apprentice wizard... then only ridiculously awesome swordmasters should be partying with apprentice wizards, and both are the same level.

My own take on "spellcasters are/should be better" is because spellcasters require planning and effort to a certain degree.

[BWR]

But is it really that difficult to be a caster? Wizards just need a way to learn, and with all the scrolls floating about and wizards selling their services, even a pretty average-Int person could ostensibly learn Wiz 1, given time. Sor 1 depends on outside sources. Cleric 1 usually relies on a priesthood to teach the mystical ways of whatever, but in any case is up to the god who to recognize as a priest and who not to (much murkier if you worship a concept).

If there were a class in D&D that promised all manner of exploits from level 1, ending with cosmic power, I'd expect it to be by far the most common profession, even if most people in that profession weren't very good at it.

The whole concept of only special people are special and everyone else obviously lacks talent or would be a [spellcaster class] already seems pretty meta to me.

Not to pick on you, Psyren. Your comment just touched on something that has been on my mind lately.

In certain settings in earlier editions there was more to learning magic than just having appropriate stats. You could be a super genius and not be able to learn a single spell if that's the way the universe wanted it; you needed the special talent. Even high-magic settings like Alphatia in Mystara has at best 25% casters, and you didn't need more than Int 9 to be magic-user in BECMI . It's just that for game purposes this sort of limitation isn't implemented because there is no need to. Basing interpretation of D&D on mechanics rather than using mechanics to fit the setting leads to all sorts of weird stuff like the Tippy-verse.

[Gemini476]

In certain settings in earlier editions there was more to learning magic than just having appropriate stats. You could be a super genius and not be able to learn a single spell if that's the way the universe wanted it; you needed the special talent. Even high-magic settings like Alphatia in Mystara has at best 25% casters, and you didn't need more than Int 9 to be magic-user in BECMI . It's just that for game purposes this sort of limitation isn't implemented because there is no need to. Basing interpretation of D&D on mechanics rather than using mechanics to fit the setting leads to all sorts of weird stuff like the Tippy-verse.

You can have 3 Int and still be a Magic-User in the Rules Cyclopedia. It's fairly SAD.
However, magic is a bit difficult. First of all you need to be apprenticed to a more experienced magic-user for quite some time, and they'll only give you five or so free spells by the time you're level four and leave the apprenticeship. The rest you need to steal from spellbooks or scrolls, neither of which are cheap nor openly shared.
Also, you can't use armor. At all. And can't move while casting - think of it like every spell being a special full-round action that disallows 5-ft steps. And you only have very, very few spells available to cast. You end up with more spells known than the 3.5 wizard, yes, but you start out with 1/day and it's really slow at increasing.

Also, you just have a d4 hit die. And constitution bonuses just go up to +3. Your HP at level 36 (why on earth are you not an Immortal yet?) would be 9d4+9*Con+25, so between 26 and 88. The average is probably 47, though.

While you get some pretty awesome things at high levels, monsters have an easier time saving against them as the levels go up as well. And Wish requires 18 Int and level 36, which is way past the point where you should have become an Immortal already and started playing croquet with planets. Seriously, Immortality is available from level 27 onwards for a Magic-User and slogging it all the way through to level 36 just isn't worth it.

I mean, let's take a look at 9th level spells for the Wizard. (Remember, he's pretty much still magical artillery at this point in the franchise.)
Contingency - prepare a non-damaging 4th level spell to be cast when something happens
Create Any Monster - Create 1HD/CL of monsters that stick around for 30 minutes (if they have three or more asterisks of special abilities, you must have spent an hour studying one), or create a permanent construct if you spend a lot of money. Note that all of these can be dispelled and are blocked by protection from evil and anti-magic shell.
Gate - open a wormhole w/ vortex leading to another plane. A gate to the Astral, Ethereal, or an Elemental plane stays open for 1d100 x 10 minutes, with 10% chance per turn of something wandering through. If you open a gate to an outer plane, you'd better have a good reason for that or the Immortal in charge of that plane will smite you. You can also cast a reversed version, Close Gate, which can even close a permanent gate.
Heal - identical to the 6th level Clerical spell cureall. Can heal all except 1d6 damage, remove a curse, neutralize poison, cure a disease, cure blindness, or remove a feeblemind effect.
Immunity - 10 minutes/CL you are immune to all 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd level spells, 4th-5th have half effect (or a quarter on a successful save), you are immune to all missiles as well as all normal (non-magical) and silver weapons. You take half damage from magical hand-held weapons. Natural attacks and the like can still hurt you. You can also wish to have it extend to 4th level spells and +1 weapons, with half normal effect from 5th and 6th level spells. It needs to be carefully worded, though.
Maze - No save, just disappear for somewhere between 1d4 x 10 seconds and 1d6 x 10 minutes depending on intelligence.
Meteor Swarm - four meteors with 8d6 damage + 8d6 fire damage each, or eight doing 4d6 damage. You can save for half damage from the fire damage, but the strike damage is unavoidable.
Power Word Kill - no save just die for critters with less than 61 hit points, 61-100hp is stunned instead. Can slay up to five creatures if they all have 20hp or less. Magic-users and others that cast magic-user spells (so Elves and Wokani) get to save with a -4 penalty to their roll.
Prismatic Wall - confusing and mostly meant for BBEGs, but I think it mostly works like in latter editions.
Shapechange - you get to play as a monster for 10 minutes/CL. Changing shape takes a full round, you can't cast spells when not a bipedal humanoid, cannot use scrolls or your spellbook while shapechanged, and keep your own hit points and saving throws.
Survival - protects the target from natural environmental hazards, be they dehydration, hunger, suffocation, the fire on the plane of the same name, the nuclear fusion within the sun, or cold from a blizzard.
Time Stop - gives you 1d4+1 rounds to put Delayed Fireballs into the pockets of your enemies. Or something else. You only have one action per round, and movement is one of them.
Wish - there are no "safe" wishes, but there are some that are deemed somewhat balanced if you word them properly. Remember, this has no downside beyond you needing to be level 36 and have 18 Int. You can copy a magical spell of 8th level or lower or a clerical or druidic one or 6th level or less, wish for up to 50,000gp/wish (although you lose an equal amount of xp), temporarily change an ability score to something between 3 and 18, lasting an hour, increase an ability score by casting a number of wishes equal to the desired score within a week (so 18 wishes - two days - if you want to give someone an 18), raise the hit dice of demihumans by one, change a demihuman to a human or the reverse, and change the outcome of something that happened within the last day.
The DM has a free license to screw you over with that, though, and as said you probably won't ever reach that level before you become Immortal and get unlimited power (including but not limited to, at-will casting of all spells).


Also, I kind of feel like this quote by Gary Gygax is somewhat relevant.

From The Strategic Review: Vol 2, Issue 2 April 1976:

The logic behind it all was drawn from game balance as much as from anything else.

Fighters have their strength, weapons, and armor to aid them in their competition.
Magic-users must rely upon their spells, as they have virtually no weaponry or armor to protect them.
Clerics combine some of the advantages of the other two classes.
The new class, thieves, have the basic advantage of stealthful actions with some additions in order for them to successfully operate on a plane with other character types.

If magic is unrestrained in the campaign, D&D quickly degenerates into a weird wizard show where players get bored quickly, or the referee is forced to change the game into a new framework which will accommodate what he has created by way of player characters. It is the opinion of this writer that the most desirable game is one in which the various character types are able to compete with each other as relative equals, for that will maintain freshness in the campaign (providing that advancement is slow and there is always some new goal to strive for).

Magic is great. Magic is powerful. But it should be kept great and powerful in relation to its game environment. That means all the magic-users who have been coasting along with special dispensations from the dungeonmaster may soon have to get out there and root with the rest of the players or lie down and die.