Citizen Joe
2007-12-28, 05:00 PM
Actually, the reality based equivalent is a stage magician. In order to pull a rabbit from the hat, he needs to have set up the trick in the first place. He doesn't just keep pulling them out. That being said, some tricks don't have much set up involved or are resetting.
Now, if you want to say that a magician should be able to set up the trick multiple times, then the analogy is either multiple castings memorized or scrolls.
Personally, I would like to see in 4E (and I'm repeating myself) the blasty stuff become at will and do damage comparable to other classes, and probably need a focus like a wand or staff or something. The utility spells would remain Vancian and would have to be prepared for each encounter with the magician able to juggle only so many at a time. And finally some sort of once per day buffing or special effect talent (including enchanting). In the case of divine casters, replace blasty with healing. Then as casters advance in levels they have to choose which aspect they improve. With 30 levels, it could be broken down into 10 levels of each aspect... I'd probably put some thresholds in there so you need a certain level of one aspect to improve past another level in a different aspect just so you don't get total minmaxing... The added benefit is that you don't need a hundred classes of arcane casters, one will do with all its permutations. I'd even cram the paladin into the divine caster superclass as one of the permutations.
Now, if you want to say that a magician should be able to set up the trick multiple times, then the analogy is either multiple castings memorized or scrolls.
Personally, I would like to see in 4E (and I'm repeating myself) the blasty stuff become at will and do damage comparable to other classes, and probably need a focus like a wand or staff or something. The utility spells would remain Vancian and would have to be prepared for each encounter with the magician able to juggle only so many at a time. And finally some sort of once per day buffing or special effect talent (including enchanting). In the case of divine casters, replace blasty with healing. Then as casters advance in levels they have to choose which aspect they improve. With 30 levels, it could be broken down into 10 levels of each aspect... I'd probably put some thresholds in there so you need a certain level of one aspect to improve past another level in a different aspect just so you don't get total minmaxing... The added benefit is that you don't need a hundred classes of arcane casters, one will do with all its permutations. I'd even cram the paladin into the divine caster superclass as one of the permutations.