Quote Originally Posted by Person_Man View Post
And finally, it's my hope that a new magic system will make combat much better. To use a poorly constructed metaphor:

In 3.5, your Magic User has a machine gun. Everyone else on the battlefield has swords. So as long as he has bullets to shoot and is smart enough to know how to use them, the Magic User wins, unless there's another Magic User on the battlefield, and then whoever shoots first wins. But he essentially starts with only a few bullets, so at early levels, the Magic User is only useful for one or two combats. And then he sucks for the rest of the day. As he gains levels he gains bullets. Eventually, he has enough bullets to dominate every combat. And any semblance of game balance breaks down. It's still fun to walk out onto the field and shoot everyone, but it makes all your friends with swords feel left out.

In 4.0, your Magic User has a has a six shooter. And so does everyone else. You each have six bullets. Certainly, there are different types of guns, guns made for short, medium, and long range, different special ways to shoot, different protections you might wear, etc. But you're all on a level playing field, and you all have a certain number of bullets that you can use each encounter. Everyone is theoretically at the same power level, you just focus on different aspects of the battlefield.
I suspect the situation will be more like this:

In 1ed spell casters could choose various types of ammo for differing situations but were limited by how much they could carry overall and by how much of each class of ammo they could carry within that overall limit. Reloading took a long time and was difficult and often expensive. Gaining access to new types of ammo was a rare thing and not guaranteed to ever happen for most casters.

By 4e, spellcastering has degenerated to the point where all have instant access to airstrikes that they can call in as often as they like, although the aircraft become slightly smaller after a while. A quick lie down will restart the cycle all over again.

If they play test a lot and do it correctly, the magic system in 4.0 could be an infinite improvement over 3.5. But if they do it poorly, it will destroy the uniqueness of the D&D magic system and turn D&D into WoW. And nobody wants that.
Place your bets