rhythmrikardo DeleteThis @hotmail.co.uk wrote:
> How does this work then and actually keep it enjoyable to play a
> casting class?
>
> Say for example I played a wizard and was level 5 it looks like I get
> to cast 10 spells a day. Now this doesn't seem like much when casting
> is your main ability! I'm sure you could get through much more than
> that in very little time.
>
>>From where I'm standing ( a newbie playing a fighter type ) the casting
> classes don't look very appealing if you become a passenger in a group
> half an hour after setting out. What do you do the rest of the time?
>
> Now bearing in mind I'm new to D&D and NWN2 so probably have missed
> something. I have RTFM cover to cover today and couldn't spot anything
> that explained this seemingly huge huge drawback to playing any casting
> class.
>
This is a drawback, not to the NWN1 or NWN2 games, but to D&D itself;
early on they adopted a mechanism to limit spellcasters by having them
"memorize" a few spells which they could use until they ran out, and
then not have available till after they've rested.
For low level mages, this can be a huge problem, in a normal play group,
where you can spend a whole evening or two in play sessions which span
just an hour or two of "in game" time. If you've got one or two or even
ten spells to your name, you aren't going to have much opportunity to do
anything.
As you level up, you get more and more spells, to the point where you'll
end up resting long before you run out of spells to cast, most times.
In the NWN games (and in most other games based on D&D) this problem is
far less irksome, because its usually simple enough to resolve; find a
safe spot and take a little rest break, refresh all your spells. A
crippling problem in the PnP version of the game becomes a tactical item
to keep up with in a CRPG... unless the module designer has added a way
to keep track of the time you waste sitting around getting spells back.
If, after all, you have only three days to deliver this message to the
king, and you spend 8 hours after every fight resting back up and
refreshing your spells, you'll be able to get thru at most 9 fights
before running out of time. Meanwhile, a "pure fighter" type could get
thru 9 fights in under 90 minutes...
Except that, barring healing magic, that pure fighter is going to need a
lot of "down time" to heal up, in fact he'll likely need weeks between
battles, rather than a few hours. If he's relying on healing magic,
well then you're looking at the same mechanic; his healer is going to
have to refresh HIS spells same as your mage would.
Or he could rely on healing potions and scrolls... in which case, you
can rely on spell casting wands and scrolls and the like.
All in all, its a peculiar mechanic, dating back (if you want the
history behind it all) to some stories set in the Dying Earth by Jack
Vance, long before role playing games were a gleam in anybodies' eye.
But its part and parcel of the unique individual flavor that is D&D, so
whether you like it or not may be a matter of taste, but if it turns out
you don't, don't complain about the NWN system, but rather about the
entire genre, and go look for other game systems, be they Everquest or
World of Warcraft or whatever.
Lance
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