Quote Originally Posted by terodil View Post
I believe that this is a deeply flawed argument, even if we disregard the excessively dangerous 'always'. It relies heavily on the assumptions that the mage in question a- has the spell learned/prepared, b- has saved the spellslot during the entire day of adventuring, c- that this is the fight that 'matters' and not the one after. Or the one previous that the group managed with difficulty and that the meteor swarm could have made much easier. d- that the spell actually does something and doesn't miss / get saved against / fail for a myriad of other possible reasons, and e- that 'being the MVP' is the thing that matters to the mage, and not 'group success', 'fun RPing' or anything else. I don't think any one of these assumptions is trivial.
Some of these points are more legitimate than others. Working in order:
A) has the spell slot learned or prepared. It is possible, if you try really hard, to pick sets of high level spells that will be useless in a big fight. I absolutely conceed this is possible. Some classes are more likely to have this than others - for example a wizard or cleric with access to divination magic has a pretty good chance of knowing what is coming up and can change. A sorcerer or warlock who made poor choices is stuck with them. This point though doesn't seem relevant to me, the OP suggested changes to how these spells cast. If, as you are suggesting, you dont have anything appropriate to cast out of your high level slots, or dont have the slots... then these changes have absolutely no impact at all.

B) This is my point. It is the choice of the caster as to when they dominate. They can chose not to on any given encounter. It is their choice to hold back. Other classes with a less uneven distribution of power get to shine, not according to their timetable but to the decision of the caster. So yeah, it assumes the caster saves slots - the problem is when they can.

C) this is the fight that matters. Ok, sure if you have only 1 high level slot then you need to use it in the right fight. When you have only one high level slot then the OP suggestion only impacts one spell in the entire day anyway. If you have a slot of 6th, 7th and 8th level then that is three encounters you have high level slots for. Your point here is legitimate though in that when you have exceptionally long adventuring days with each encounter being as tough as all the others with no climactic boss fights or easy encounters then this issue does diminish a lot. Sure, there are other problems but the point remains.

D) The problem is described is with a single spell ending the dram of a key encounter before the other PCs get an equal chance to have their class features shine. If the spell doesn't do that it is a non issue. So yeah, if they dont do the thing that spoils the game the game isn't spoiled. Much like if they chose not to cast the spell. I guess this is true...

E) This is the one that I strongly disagree with. The "MVP" thing I am not so tied to - it was Pex's term so I borrowed it for consistency. I dont think it matters at all what the PC casting the spell is aiming for though. If they cast Maze because it is an awesomely evocative spell and they love the description and if they cast it in the most important fight because they are role playing someone who wants to survive that fight and defeat their enemies you get the same effect as someone who selects and casts the spell to demonstrate that their character is really really powerful or even someone who wants to actively stop the rest of the party doing their thing. Indeed the alternative motivation of "group success" is the most common motivation I have seen for this problem. Player wants the party to overcome the encounter therefore PC casts the spell that will achieve that.

I would say that you have missed out bigger assumptions though, thinks like the assumption that someone is playing a caster. But the nature of calling these assumptions such doesn't diminish the OP's point that it would be useful to have rules in place that stop these problems from occurring when the conditions, that you call assumptions, are met.