[RPG] Balancing Spellcasters; Spontaneous Casters versus Prepared Casters

balanceclassdnd-3.5ehouse-rulesoptimization

So ask any optimizer and they'll almost always tell you the same thing: in 3.5 classes that prepare spells are better than spontaneous spellcasters. It's generally not thought of as even a contest. There's a few reasons for this (never mind that prepared casters usually get better class features than their spontaneous counterparts), but the most often quoted are the slower casting progression and lack of versatility. All spontaneous casters get for their loss of power and versatility is ease of play. My players just finished a campaign with an Archivist and a Druid and they ended up fatigued by all the extra work. They like the idea of spontaneous casters but they don't like feeling like they're being punished for choosing a clearly inferior class just because they don't want to waste everyones time choosing spells.

Of all the things I have thought to try to fix this imbalance, the simplest seemed to be speeding up the spell progression of spontaneous casters to match the progression of the preparatory spellcasters. There had never seemed to be a good reason for this anyway unless Wizards really overestimated the value of spontaneous casting. This seems to help get those spontaneous casters on almost the same foot as prepared casters. I actually think they still wouldn't be as good, but it would close the gap significantly, which is what I'm looking for. Does anyone have any experience trying something along these lines? Or any thoughts or other ideas about closing this gap?

Oh, and I know that "spellcasters don't need any help." I find the tier system instructive but take its recommendations on party composition with a pretty significant grain of salt. I'm not interested in how the Sorcerer stacks up against the Barbarian, because the two serve totally different roles. I'm much more concerned with how it compares to the Wizard. In my mind, the two should play differently but not have such a significant gap in power.

Best Answer

These are bascially listed in order from “smallest and easiest” to “biggest and hardest.”

Step One: Eliminate the lost spellcasting level at 3rd

There’s literally no reason for it. At the time, it may have been believed that there were advantages to spontaneous casting that demanded it as a balancing factor, or, as rumored, Monte Cook may have just hated sorcerers (see here for a search for the real reason), but experience and hindsight have demonstrated it to not be the case.

Step Two: Rapid Metamagic

One of the natural and fitting advantages that spontaneous spellcasters should have is the ability to apply metamagic on the fly, but the increased casting time for this ruins that. So eliminate that.

Step Three: Consider More Spells per Day

This is the advantage that spontaneous casters have, but the difference isn’t all that large: usually about 1 spell per day per spell level. It could be bigger, to make it worth a little more. That said, spells per day is rarely a meaningful limitation on spellcasters past level 7 or so (and even that might be generous).

Step Four: Consider More Spells Known

It definitely reduces a major stumbling block for them, and considering that prepared spellcasters have spells known of “all the spells,” they aren’t likely to be threatened by it. For example, sorcerers know spells in a distribution very similar to the wizards spells per day, which means that the sorcerer has to “prepare” the same number of spells as the wizard, he just has to prepare for the rest of his life while the wizard only has to prepare for the next day.

Bonus: Sorcerer specifically

The sorcerer really deserves a better chassis and class features. 2 + Int skill points, on a Cha-based class? That’s just mean. For that matter, a Cha-based class, with only Bluff as a Cha-based class-skill? Why? Give them Intimidate, at the least. Some more knowledges would not be amiss. And some class features, even if it’s just Eschew Materials at 1st and bonus feats as the wizard gets. Some of Pathfinder’s bloodlines are ridiculous, but some of them are fair enough.

Related Topic