One factor that makes all this worse is that utility spells usually always succeed, whereas with the swinginess of d20 and the fact that skill checks are usually meant to be a single die roll, it can take quite a while for proficiency to mean much, compared to unskilled casters attempting the same challenge. Things like expertise and reliable talent help a little, but I’d say it’s too little, too late.
Also, much like it’s difficult (and for many people tedious) to fit the amounts of combat into an adventuring day that the system intended, I imagine it’s a challenge to fit the amount of meaningful skill checks into an adventuring day so the spellcasters limited resources start to matter.
> We could use this lever to remove casters’ extra verbs. (Skyrim and Dark Souls are examples of fantasy media that reduce casters’ power substantially.) But powerful spells like fly, telekinesis, and wish are too central to the Dungeons & Dragons brand to let go. As such, we’re left with a single remaining viable option:
> Let non-casters cast spells.
This resonated strongly with me. 4e did this with their versions of rituals, which 5e then butchered. Back when I was playing 3e, I even made a variant for that edition that added 4e rituals into it: https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Rituals_(3.5e_Variant_Rule)
That's a fascinating idea. So the central concept is that rituals are scientific "applied magic," which means anyone can do them? Love it; I'd love to see a setting (Eberron?) that explored this.
Sort of; everyone has access to it in their own way, depending on what they believe in, how magic works, what power sources they tap into, and so on. So it all looks very different on the surface, but has the same effect. And since you can only have a very limited number of "favored" rituals, it promotes everyone to take different rituals, allowing everyone to shine instead of one person hoarding all of them *cough*wizard*cough*.
Very cool. I'm not sure how much time I have to brainstorm, but if you've ever got a finished product and you'd like another set of eyes on it, feel free to shoot me a DM on Twitter!
I strongly disagree with the assertion that skills rarely come up in exploration; frankly if that's the case in a game then the DM is falling short. Athletics and acrobatics frequently come up in both combat and exploration thanks to their being at the heart of the combat maneuver system and being vital for any 3 dimensional movement during exploration. Casters are but good at either of these skills and have spells to fill that gap, which as you point out are limited resources (fly is a third level concentration spell, a caster is unlikely to just cast that willy nilly). Stealth is another skill that is vital to exploration and which casters can use a spell to be good at for a single scene but otherwise tend to be sub par. I'm just exploration scenes in groups I run out tends to be the casters taking the lead on gathering information with Int and Wis based skills with the non casters acting on that information using their physical skills.
Ultimately I don't think this balances casters and non casters, but it is one of the few areas of the game where I feel there is still that balance, whereas those boundaries have eroded in other parts of the game giving the upper hand to casters (for instance everyone being equally proficient in their weapons and gear, and casters being able to much more easily wear armor). So while I agree with the overall thesis, I strongly disagree with the assertion that skills hardly come up in exploration; if that's the case then your exploration pillar is not getting the depth and attention that you are giving combat and roleplay, and that's on the DM not the system. One of Conan's primary advantages over casters and civilized men is his panther like agility, his stealth, and his ability to climb almost anything, something that is still reflected in D&D's system rather well. As long as players and DM are thinking three dimensionally, physical skills should be some of the most useful in the game.
Thank you for the critique! I think I have to ultimately disagree, largely because most playgroups don't run constant "standard adventuring days." You're right that, while crawling through a long, combat-filled dungeon, the martials' physical skill advantage may prove valuable, but in a day with few combat encounters or none at all (as is becoming more and more common), the casters will have no problem wasting all of their spell slots on Fly or Pass Without Trace.
Plus, in the case of Stealth, pretty much every class needs Dexterity to function, so it's usually not too much of a problem for a caster to pick up a Stealth proficiency through the Urchin or Criminal backgrounds and be nearly as competitive as a DEX-based fighter.
If you're running a game with lots of dungeon crawls and near-constant combat, then martials and casters are probably balanced out-of-combat! My article was an attempt to point out that, in my experience, this is generally not the case for games that diverge from that mold.
One factor that makes all this worse is that utility spells usually always succeed, whereas with the swinginess of d20 and the fact that skill checks are usually meant to be a single die roll, it can take quite a while for proficiency to mean much, compared to unskilled casters attempting the same challenge. Things like expertise and reliable talent help a little, but I’d say it’s too little, too late.
Also, much like it’s difficult (and for many people tedious) to fit the amounts of combat into an adventuring day that the system intended, I imagine it’s a challenge to fit the amount of meaningful skill checks into an adventuring day so the spellcasters limited resources start to matter.
Wholeheartedly agreed - all good points!
> We could use this lever to remove casters’ extra verbs. (Skyrim and Dark Souls are examples of fantasy media that reduce casters’ power substantially.) But powerful spells like fly, telekinesis, and wish are too central to the Dungeons & Dragons brand to let go. As such, we’re left with a single remaining viable option:
> Let non-casters cast spells.
This resonated strongly with me. 4e did this with their versions of rituals, which 5e then butchered. Back when I was playing 3e, I even made a variant for that edition that added 4e rituals into it: https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Rituals_(3.5e_Variant_Rule)
That's a fascinating idea. So the central concept is that rituals are scientific "applied magic," which means anyone can do them? Love it; I'd love to see a setting (Eberron?) that explored this.
Sort of; everyone has access to it in their own way, depending on what they believe in, how magic works, what power sources they tap into, and so on. So it all looks very different on the surface, but has the same effect. And since you can only have a very limited number of "favored" rituals, it promotes everyone to take different rituals, allowing everyone to shine instead of one person hoarding all of them *cough*wizard*cough*.
Very cool. I'm not sure how much time I have to brainstorm, but if you've ever got a finished product and you'd like another set of eyes on it, feel free to shoot me a DM on Twitter!
I strongly disagree with the assertion that skills rarely come up in exploration; frankly if that's the case in a game then the DM is falling short. Athletics and acrobatics frequently come up in both combat and exploration thanks to their being at the heart of the combat maneuver system and being vital for any 3 dimensional movement during exploration. Casters are but good at either of these skills and have spells to fill that gap, which as you point out are limited resources (fly is a third level concentration spell, a caster is unlikely to just cast that willy nilly). Stealth is another skill that is vital to exploration and which casters can use a spell to be good at for a single scene but otherwise tend to be sub par. I'm just exploration scenes in groups I run out tends to be the casters taking the lead on gathering information with Int and Wis based skills with the non casters acting on that information using their physical skills.
Ultimately I don't think this balances casters and non casters, but it is one of the few areas of the game where I feel there is still that balance, whereas those boundaries have eroded in other parts of the game giving the upper hand to casters (for instance everyone being equally proficient in their weapons and gear, and casters being able to much more easily wear armor). So while I agree with the overall thesis, I strongly disagree with the assertion that skills hardly come up in exploration; if that's the case then your exploration pillar is not getting the depth and attention that you are giving combat and roleplay, and that's on the DM not the system. One of Conan's primary advantages over casters and civilized men is his panther like agility, his stealth, and his ability to climb almost anything, something that is still reflected in D&D's system rather well. As long as players and DM are thinking three dimensionally, physical skills should be some of the most useful in the game.
Thank you for the critique! I think I have to ultimately disagree, largely because most playgroups don't run constant "standard adventuring days." You're right that, while crawling through a long, combat-filled dungeon, the martials' physical skill advantage may prove valuable, but in a day with few combat encounters or none at all (as is becoming more and more common), the casters will have no problem wasting all of their spell slots on Fly or Pass Without Trace.
Plus, in the case of Stealth, pretty much every class needs Dexterity to function, so it's usually not too much of a problem for a caster to pick up a Stealth proficiency through the Urchin or Criminal backgrounds and be nearly as competitive as a DEX-based fighter.
If you're running a game with lots of dungeon crawls and near-constant combat, then martials and casters are probably balanced out-of-combat! My article was an attempt to point out that, in my experience, this is generally not the case for games that diverge from that mold.