The purpose of having a magic system in a game is, after all, to provide a framework to allow spellcaster type characters to actually, you know, cast spells and stuff. The issue I have with D&D is that it doesn't actually do this. Quite the opposite in fact.
I realise that with something like magic there are issues of game balance to be considered. You wouldn't want to make it so that the spellcasters totally dominate at the expense of the fighters. Although maybe you could try designing a system that actually allows fighters to be interesting, but I guess that's another matter?
Anyway, the problem lies in the way that D&D tries to limit the spellcasters. Starting out as a spellcaster, you must first prepare your spells at the beginning of each day. Leaving aside the obvious ridiculousness of always having a spare couple of hours in the morning to memorise these, as well as the part where it takes exponentially less time to learn each spell as you go up levels, despite the books saying the spells evaporate from your mind entirely upon casting, and indeed the rather puzzling conundrum of how exactly one learns something TWICE, and go for the biggest problem: You are expected to be psychic. Or possibly be sneaking looks at the DMs notes. You only have a limited number of slots to be filled, and many spells are somewhat situational in nature. And thus, simply, will never get used. Given the choice between something that sounds like it might be kind of fun, and something that has more or less guaranteed utility there isn't really any choice to be made at all. Before we finally had to give up in pure and utter frustration with the standard system, this is EXACTLY how it went down. My archivist had a frankly ridiculous number of different spells, but only ever got to take Cure Light Wounds. Why? Because with the massively restricted number of castings available per day, each had to count to the maximum usefulness possible. It simply wasn't even POSSIBLE to risk trying anything else out. Thus EVERY combat was, for me, simply a case of sitting in the corner crying softly until someone else fell over. I had literally NOTHING else to contribute.
Now, to this you could well argue that my character should have gone and bought a crossbow or something. We'll leave aside the fact that the plot didn't actually give us any time to go shopping (pacing being another issue I will address later), and point out the obvious problem with that piece of logic: I'm not playing a fucking Ranger. If someone elects to roll a spell caster character then it's a pretty sure bet that one thing that they want to do is CAST SPELLS. You're not playing a wizard because you want to attack anything with a bow, you're playing it to attack the goddamn darkness with a goddamn Magic Missile.
And this leads us nicely into the next point. Having a highly restricted number of spells per day means that the vast majority of your time as a spellcaster will not be spent casting spells. A Warrior can keep hitting things with his sword until his arms fall off. A Ranger can sit there firing arrows all day and only need stop for toilet breaks. But a wizard? You get to attack maybe 4 times, and then you're done for the day. Curiously, this is one of the things that 4th Edition D&D got right, was that everybody had At Will attack powers. Whilst the Wizard was still pretty atrocious to play, you could at least actually attack with magic. Like you're supposed to. BECAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING WIZARD.
You have the robe and hat to prove it.
Of course, all of this might not be so much of a problem, if you had some way to regain your spells. If you could rest or meditate or drink a blue potion or something that would enable you to work for more than a couple of rooms at a time. And there is indeed a way of regaining your arcane strength. It's called going home.
The only way you can ever get any spells back is to go and get a MINIMUM of EIGHT HOURS restful sleep, totally undisturbed, in a nice comfy bed with your favourite bunny slippers. And Mr Beaky McSquark, your beloved plush Owlbear. As well as a nice lay in and breakfast provided. At which point you are finally ready to start studying your spellbook again for another hour. And THEN maybe you can go back and get on with whatever it was you were doing, until you're out of spells again.
At this rate the denizens of the dungeon will actually be breeding faster than you can kill them off.
And this is the rub, not only are you not casting any spells, you're not even doing it at a rate that allows any sort of plot to happen. At no point you should you EVER be having to ask the Dark Lord to come back in the morning. Of course, that would be the morning of the following day, since he woke you up in the middle of the night and now you won't actually get your goddamn spells back. The ultimate in wizard killing technology should not be a lumpy mattress.
This issue with the pacing is a real problem for me. D&D seems to have a very odd attitude to pacing, and I think a lot of that stems from the crappy magic system. It's a game that actually expects you to go adventuring like most people go to the office: Strictly from 9 til 5. You get up, go to the dungeon, put in a few hours of Kobold slaying and then clock off and go home for a bit of a kip. It's entirely antithetical to any sense of threat. You get poisoned or need to prepare some scrolls? Better take a week of holiday. It doesn't allow for the plot to proceed at anything other than the barest crawl. If you've played ANY D&D based computer game you'll know exactly what I mean. You spend more time resting to regain spells and hit points than you do anything else.
Now, I have to admit that a scenario that deprives a spellcaster of his spells and forces him to fall back on other talents could well be an interesting and fun thing to do. And there is something to be said for the notion that careful management of spells is part of what makes a wizard interesting to play. However I would counter that that's only really true where the spells are significantly more powerful than regular attacks. Whilst you may indeed want to carefully think about what you should be saving a big fireball type spell for, let's be honest: D4 damage is not something anyone should ever have to agonize over. It's the sort of thing you should be doing anyway.
The real thing that puzzles me about this magic system is simply that nobody seems to have thought about obviously bad it is since it was first demoed back in the 70s. When you consider that alternative ways of handling it are numerous, simpler, and far more satisfying both in terms of pure game mechanics and in-world functionality. I've previously mooted some thoughts on one possible way of doing things, but for the purposes of this article, let's get straight to the most obvious and widely used alternative: Spell points.
It's so simple. You get a number of spell points. Spells cost you a number to cast. You can rest or drink blue potions or whatever to regain them. If you have none then your chances of casting a spell are pretty slim. You still have to manage them, and try to make sure you don't run out at an inconvenient juncture. But suddenly you have a lot more freedom in how and when you cast spells. And since under any rational system they will regenerate over time anyway you don't need to worry about having to clock off and hope the plot shows up again in the morning.
It's also SHOCKINGLY easy to convert D&D to spellpoints. A spell costs it's level. You get however many spells you normally would times the level as spell points. Simple. One other problem this avoids is the one of spell attrition. Normally you'd have a few higher level spells, then a few mid level spells and some low level ones. You get into a major fight, you use the big ones first. Once those run out you're onto the less effective mid level ones, before finally resorting to the low levels which are in all probability not going to do any good. But now you've replaced that grim inevitability of diminishing returns with elements of strategic choice for the player. Do you cast a loads of low level spells, or save your points for a handful of higher level ones? As long as you're careful with managing your spell points there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do something actually useful. There is, after all, nothing quite so bad at being reduced to only being able to cast magic missile.
The other part this system skips is the whole having to know which spells to use in advance part. You have a spellbook, you have spells. Cast them. You may need to add some sort of limiter for those who take an age to decide on what they want to cast, but I don't see why putting in a spellcraft check to find the right page should cause a problem. Indeed, it makes a degree of sense.
Whilst spell points are not to me entirely satisfying (as they don't allow for any in extremis extra desperate effort) it's shocking the difference that adopting it made to the game we were trying to play. Put simply it suddenly became some shade of playable. Rather than being stuck doing nothing because I couldn't risk not talking a full complement of Cure Light Wounds my Archivist could seize opportunities as they came up. Suddenly I had OPTIONS.
This possibly my main problem with Pathfinder. Whilst they managed to fix most of the problems with D&D as it stood (largely by dint of simply ditching the parts that were obviously naff) I really can't believe they stuck with that magic system. But then, as I said, I can't believe anyone else did for this long either.
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