Rebalancing Spellcasting 5e

[Trask]

The thing is? Shield would be perfectly fine if casters didn't have ready access to Constitution save proficiency or better armor proficiencies.

Theoretically, arcane casters have to split their stats between their casting stat, Constitution (for HP and concentration), and Dexterity (for AC and initiative). You're probably going to have a Dexterity of 12~14 for most of your career, so Mage Armor is going to give you a base AC of 14-15. Slapping Shield on top of that gets you to AC 19-20, which makes you roughly on par with a martial character at the cost of a low-level spell slot and your reaction. It's fairly obvious to me that this was what they thinking of when balancing the classes - you cast Shield to prevent losing concentration on your big spell, because your AC and Con save are generally poor.

The thing is, even when you factor in the fact that casters generally hit a point where they don't have any good uses for casting low-level spells other than casting Shield and other defensive spells, that's still fine, because it mirrors how people with "real" armor are going to generally improve their AC, due to finally affording stuff like full plate, maxing out their Dexterity, or just plain finding magical armor. By the time that Mr. Wizard effectively has access to their Shielded AC all day long, everyone else should have AC that's at about that same level.

The problem is that they made it way too easy to get access to actual armor, which lets Shield break bounded accuracy like a twig. They made it too easy to grab proficiency in Constitution saves, which means that casters aren't forced to split their stat increases between Dexterity and Constitution to be "comfortable" in combat. While being able to cast spells in any armor you're proficient in is certainly a problem, the real issue is that spells like Shield were written without taking that into account.

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An even bigger problem, in my mind, is that spellcasters are designed to cater to multiple incompatible playstyles. They have to have tons of spell slots for the people who want to participate in fights by throwing around multiple Fireballs, while at the same time they're designed so that you can get away with only using one or two spell slots per fight so that you can use them for utility. There's also a really bad trend where spellcasters get spells that boil down to plot powers - there's no good reason why things like Clone or Wish need to be player-accessible.

Honestly, the Warlock is closer to how spellcasters should have been designed if the whole "save my spells for utility and the big fight, normally contribute with cantrips" playstyle was deliberate. Because that's the playstyle they're are more-or-less designed around - that's why they get those Invocations that give access to additional spells known that they can only use once per long rest, and why they get bonuses to Eldritch Blast that make it as strong as it is.

Agreed that its way too easy for casters to get armor and constitution saving throw proficiency, those are crucial balancing factors that just kind of go out the window with the multiclassing and feats rules (another reason why the game is better balanced without those things...)

Casters just go so MUCH in general. So many spells that just instantly solve problems (find the path, invisibility, magnificent mansion, temple of the gods, teleport, telepathy, rope trick, leomund's, gate, wish etc). They can cast very easily (no more AoO if casting within 5ft) and with the optional MC and Feats rules, their biggest limitations (low defenses & vulnerable to losing concentration) literally disappear. Its expected that every caster get into "auto succeed territory" with concentration and IMO that should be quite rare. On top of everything, the way that rests tend to be handwaved more easily nowadays only compounds the problem, making casters leagues and stars above everyone else.

Its disheartening at times, and all the goodwill between classes and feelings of teamwork doesn't change that casters have way too few limitations on their power and that it impacts the game.

Personally I feel like every class could use a reduction in their spells known and I agree that the warlock feels like casters "done right" in comparison to martials.