Caster balance issues

[Gimpster]

The biggest mistake made when casters got "balanced" was that they used PnP as a baseline.

Erm, no. In PnP it is widely acknowledeged that a caster who fights with damage-dealing spells is less powerful than one who uses save-or-die, save-or-suck (debuff), or buff/transport magic.

The relative weakness of Fireball compared to Finger of Death is actually a matter of PnP accuracy.

[Seneca_Windforge]

Erm, no. In PnP it is widely acknowledeged that a caster who fights with damage-dealing spells is less powerful than one who uses save-or-die, save-or-suck (debuff), or buff/transport magic.

The relative weakness of Fireball compared to Finger of Death is actually a matter of PnP accuracy.

I am referring to numbers of spell points, not PnP fireball versus PnP Finger of Death. Wizards can afford to cast spells left and right in PnP once they get to higher levels; you can't do that nearly as much in DDO because DDO does not use the 4 encounters per rest measuring stick that PnP uses -- DDO casters must go through many more encounters per rest than their PnP counterparts. Even when PnP arcane casters do run out of spells, their wands and staves actually do enough damage to matter.

In Gianthold, a wand of fireball or lightning bolt is pretty useless; to a 14th level PnP wizard/sorcerer who is out of spells, the damage might not be mind-blowing, but it is enough to be worth using.

By the way, i've never heard that it is "widely acknowledged" that damage dealing spells are less powerful in PnP than other like-level spells, and i've been playing PnP for seven years. There are times when damage dealing spells are your best option, just like there are times when an Entangle, Ray of Enfeeblement, Moon Bolt, Finger of Death, or Teleport is your best option. It just depends on your situation, how many monsters you are fighting, what weaknesses those monsters have, etc.

[MysticTheurge]

Erm, no. In PnP it is widely acknowledeged that a caster who fights with damage-dealing spells is less powerful than one who uses save-or-die, save-or-suck (debuff), or buff/transport magic.

The relative weakness of Fireball compared to Finger of Death is actually a matter of PnP accuracy.

But let's be honest here Gimpster, fireball may be weaker than FoD in D&D, but it's not as weak as it is in DDO.

Fireball vs. FoD when something has 200 HPs? Yeah, kind of weak.

Fireball vs. FoD when something has 2000 HPs? Absolutely pointless.

[jkm]

its only 1.5 for vulnerable creatures. i am as fire spec'd as you can possibly get and my high water mark on a firewall is 625. why do i know that? cause i go back and look at the combat logs. my high water mark on cone of cold is 1410 on velah. that is fully spec'd superior ice lore/superior potency 6 gear. that hit took out about 15% of her hit points on normal.

[Gimpster]

its only 1.5 for vulnerable creatures.

That's how D&D works, not DDO. In DDO, vulnerable monsters take double damage. Try hitting an ice mephit with a Flaming sword an you'll see damage up to +12 fire.