I've always had a fondness for playing spellcasters in rpgs. I enjoy the fact that my character is capable of things that deny explanation, and the fact that I'm always a threat even without weapons. In the course of my gaming career, I have played mostly casters. Almost all of my D&D characters have been sorcerers, and most recently wizards, and when I'm not playing D&D, I play the closest thing I can to a caster. During this lesson, I'm going to analyze some of the spells and functions of the arcane caster of D&D 3.5.
Let's take a moment to examine a few spells. Most casters who begin their adventures at level 1 will probably pick Magic Missile as their go-to combat spell, but why? As a first level caster, a Magic Missile will only deal 2-5 damage. The upside is that it always hits, it ignores armor and resistances, but at that low level, that shouldn't be an issue. The downside is that it hits only one target. Assuming you were able to cast 3 of them per day, that's a total of 6-15 damage. What about some other 1st level spells? My personal favorites are Sleep and Color Spray. Sleep is an awesome spell at 1st level, affecting as many as four opponents of equal level. This spell can end a fight or at least remove about half of your opponents from the fight when used correctly. Color Spray has the drawback of being a much shorter range spell, and it only affects as many opponents as you catch in the spray, however it remains useful longer, since Sleep has a maximum level of opponent it can affect, and Color Spray just has reduced effects against more powerful opponents.
Usually around 3rd level spells is when arcane casters really start getting interesting. This is when you get your first few spells that really alter gameplay. The question is, which ones do you want? Fireball or Lightning Bolt are usually the go-to choice for combat, both affecting multiple targets, and both doing appreciable damage. However, these are very poor choices. By the time you get access to these spells, you will be a level 5 character. Both spells will deal 5d6 damage at this level, and both allow a reflex save for half damage. Also, both spells will hurt your allies if they get caught in the area. That means you have to tell the party tank to stand back while you blast the enemies, and once your allies get into melee, you have to resort to other spells. Let's take a look at the damage output of a Fireball cast by a level 5 wizard. 5d6 works out to anywhere from 5-30 damage, with an average of 17 damage. Sure, it does that much damage to multiple targets, but you just burned your most powerful spell to deal about the same amount of damage that the party tank could do with one or two attacks, so unless you hit more than one opponent with it, that was a pretty big waste of power.
So, what kinds of spells are the most effective?
Some players like "save-or-die" spells. These spells are very powerful. If the target fails their save, they're either dead, or darn near close enough that they might as well be. However, there are two major problems with these types of spells. The first is if the enemy makes their save, you just wasted your turn and a spell to do absolutely nothing. Second, if the enemy fails their save, you just invalidated the rest of the party.
I'm going to go a step further and put forth the argument that in D&D 3.5, any spell that allows a save is not worth your time. Let me break it down for you. The difficulty to make a save against a spell is 10 + the spell's level + the caster's primary attribute modifier. So, let's assume you put an 18 into your spellcasting attribute, that means the difficulty to save against your spells is 14 + the spell level. Every character's good save starts at +2 at first level and goes up by 1 at every even numbered level. If your spell were targeting their best save, and assuming they have higher than a +0 attribute modifier, they have at least a +3 bonus to their save, which would give them a 40% chance of passing a save against your 1st level spell, and 5% less for each higher spell level. However, if you're a 5th level wizard, you have 3rd level spells, so let's take a look at that Fireball. A reflex save of 17 is required to take half damage from your fireball. If you're fighting other 5th level opponents, you're looking at a +4 bonus if reflex is their best save or +1 if it's not, plus their dexterity modifier. Even with +0 from dexterity, that gives them a 40% chance of success if reflex is their good save and 25% if it's not. Now, that might sound pretty good, but let's take a look at something. For every 2 levels a character gains, their best save improves by 1, and their bad saves improve at every 3 levels. Your spells do not. Your Fireball will always require a 17 to save unless your spellcasting attribute changes. So right now, that rogue has a 40% chance of success, but if you're a level 7 wizard casting Fireball at a level 7 rogue, that rogue now has a 45% chance of success, assuming the rogue has a +0 dexterity modifier, which isn't likely for a rogue.
Basically, as you face tougher and tougher opponents, your spells that allow saves become weaker and weaker. Fireball is one of the worst 3rd level spells that you can use at higher levels. Plus, any spell that allows a reflex save is going to be crap if you're fighting an opponent with evasion. Instead of taking half damage, they'll take nothing.
Ok, let's assume a caster and an opponent, both with a +4 attribute modifier, the caster's attribute in his spellcasting attribute, and the opponent's will be whatever attribute is required to make the save, giving the caster a worst-case scenario. The following will compare the difficulty to save against a spell of each level 1-9 and the save bonus of an opponent at the same level that the caster would gain access to that level of spell.
1st- DC 15, Good Save +6, Bad Save +4
2nd- DC 16, Good Save +7, Bad Save +5
3rd- DC 17, Good Save +8, Bad Saves +5
4th- DC 18, Good Save +9, Bad Saves +6
5th- DC 19, Good Save +10, Bad Saves +7
6th- DC 20, Good Save +11, Bad Saves +7
7th- DC 21, Good Save +12, Bad Saves +8
8th- DC 22, Good Save +13, Bad Saves +9
9th- DC 23, Good Save +14, Bad Saves +9
As you can see, assuming the enemy has at least as good of an attribute modifier in their defensive attribute as you have in your offensive, they have better than a 50% chance of success against your newest spells if you target their best save, and roughly a 40-45% chance of success if you target their bad saves.
Also, consider that many great adventures conclude with an epic battle against an opponent who is usually a few levels higher than you, and your chances of getting that failed save in the adventure's climax drops considerably. It should also be noted that there are more magic items that can improve defenses and saves than there are that increase a spell's save difficulty. With all this stacked against you, using spells that allow saves is pretty pointless.
So, what about using spells that are based on the caster's attack roll? Well, those usually aren't too bad, since they tend to ignore armor, which gives the caster a very good chance to deal some damage, but the problem with these is that they usually only target a single opponent. So you effectively become an archer who runs out of ammo faster than the party's archer.
This leaves us with a type of spell that we haven't addressed yet. Party buffs. These types of spells always work, so long as your allies are within range. No member of the party would turn down a buff, so you don't have to worry about saves, and there's no attack roll required. So, you have to ask yourself, which is more effective: casting a single Fireball that does an average of 17 damage to each target and allows a save for half damage before applying any fire resistance the enemy may have, and allowing opponents with evasion to completely ignore the damage if they succeeded, or casting a Haste that grants all of your allies a +1 bonus to their attack rolls, their defense, their reflex saves, allows them to move farther each round, and allows them to make an extra attack each round, AND these bonuses last for multiple rounds?
