Allow me to begin by saying that parts of this thread may not be my original work. Some others have posted before me, I just can't seem to find them.
That having been said, let the wall of text begin.
Save or Die spells having been suitably nerfed, it's now time to turn focus to damage dealing spells. Damage dealing spells in 3rd edition D&D have been seen, rightly so, as sub-optimal. Why do 30 damage when you can kill with a handwaive? With that option removeed however, the question becomes: is 30 damage enough? The answer of course is that it depends. And for this I ask you to take a trip with me down memory lane.
In second edition there was one thing that was relative fixed: Hit points.
A 10th level fighter had a relatively fixed range of hit points. He had at *maximum* 7 hp per die from constitution and even that only until 9th level (maybe 10th.. been too long since I read 2nd edition). He got 1d10 per die, plus that consittion modifier. After 10th level he got +4. Period. Not +4 +con, but +4. A flat number.
If you were not a warrior type you got your die of HP plus a maximum of 2. TWO. this meant that a 9th level wizard had 9d4+18 hit points *maximum*. This means that if the wizard rolled 4 for every level he'd only have 54 hit points, halfway through the level progression.
After level 9 he got 1 whole hit point. *one*. This means that at level 20 the wizard had an absolute hit point cap of 65 hit points. Everyone else of course fell somewhere in between, with rogues having d6's and clerics having d8's but only Fighters got +4 after 10th- with everyone else either getting +2 or +1. (there were no +3's that I remember, but feel free to correct me).
So who cares, right? that's 2nd Edition. If you have the rule book with you I'd welcome you to turn lightning bolt or fireball. These spells did d6 damage per level. Max 10d6. Sound familiar? It should.
A 10th level wizard casting Fireball did 10d6 points of damage in a world where 10th level wizards had 9d4+18 hit points. Ouch?
Using average HP and average damage- the wizard would be lucky not to scorch himself on his own spell. Heaven forbid an enemy cast it at him! And with HP levels relatively low across the board, Fireball and it's damage dealing cousins were very useful in the game. Even the heavy HP fighters couldn't stand to be toasted very much.
Now move foward to 3rd edition.
Check the new constition charts. Check the level charts.
Unlimited HP advancement.
you get dX per level, + constition bonuses that are never ending. At low levels of course, the damage spells are still good options. Even at level 10 most people don't have the super power yet but the relative margin between 2nd edition and 3rd had already begun to erode the power of the spell.
d4+18? What wizard at level 10 only has a 14 con? Not many. Not many who survive to see level 10. And this is even discounting the relative ease of elemental resist magics.
Bump that up to 20 and you are most certainly busting the HP barriers. 20d4+x. X? what is X? X could be nearly anything. a 16 con at level 20 isn't hard to imagine. Using wishes to bump it up could easily make that 16 into a 20. A 20 con gives the wizard more hit points, before rolling, than the 2nd edition wizard got from both rolling and his con bonus.
Nerfing hit points is not the way to go. The ability score system is relatively set in stone and I don't really think anyone expects that to change.
Myself, I thought SoD's too engrained for you all to change them. You did it however, and kudos for it! Now you need to finish balancing the equation.
Wizards have lost their SoD's. They have lost many of their battlefield control spells. They need to be given back their damage spells.
There are any number of ways to go about this. Removing damage caps on spells, increasing die of damages and so on. My own idea is to give casters (all casters) a bonus per die equal to one half their primary casting stat. (rounded down). Yes, per die. A wizard with an 18 int would get +2 per die to damage spells. (+18 damage for a full blast fireball).
This is easily backward compatible, easy to implement, easy to remember, and requires the least rules adjudication. Any spell that does damage gets the bonus, any spell that doesn't- doesn't. Individual spells could, of course, be exempted from this in that individual spell's description. (spells that deal damage as an afterthought rather than as a main component, for example).
Thank you for making it this far. I look forward to reading what you think.
</wall of text>
-S
I like this idea.
And it may well serve as the beginning of a fix for the Evoker's Arcane School powers. Add a +1 to that number, perhaps increasing over time, and suddenly an evoker can deal some damage. Not as much as a proper barbarian, but more anyway.