1 - No, Alchemists are FAR different than normal casters. Magnus too, extremely more focused on melee. Witch that is the most similar that i've mentioned has an completely different relationship with her PATRON and her familiar. Not mentioning an unique type of spell. Hexes.

2 - Most MMOs do bad things, mainly after WoW. And if the versatility of Wizards bothers you(not caster, all wizards are casters, but not all casters are wizards), you can create an homebrew rule that for eg "wizards needs to have an specialization and needs to use 2 slots to cast an spell from another non prohibited school", that way, an evoker to cast stoneskin(abjuration), needs to pay an greater cost. Or you can rule that an Wizard can only pick spells from two schools.

But for many people, the main advantage of wizards over sorcerers and clerics is the versatility.

3 - If you dungeon has enough space for an colossal Dragon trowing breath attacks at 140 ft and maybe flying, it has space for you to "snipe". And if you nerf the range, you literally kill a lot of spells that are hard to be used on CQB due the "team damage". For eg, on Pathfinder Kingmaker, is almost impossible for me to use Horrid Wilting and this spell could help me a lot against jabberwocks. I will not spoil, but they are not easy enemies. But i could't use the spell. The spell should have 400 ft + 40 / caster level range, like on PnP, but thanks to the ARTIFICIAL limitation, i wasted an tier 8 spell that barely used and believe on me. P:K isn't an game where you can learn how to cast tier 8 spells easily. And there aren't epic levels on pathfinder. From lv 17 to 18, took dozens of hours.

But at least the Wild Hunt Archers are terrifying enemies and one reason to that is their RANGE.

Even outside dungeons. There are modules about fortress building. There are a lot of campaigns on feyworld, plane of air, cold montains, etc.

BTW, how this spell can work with the same area of effect with an nerfed range without dealing massive damage to your party???

[Linked Image]
(source : https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/h/horrid-wilting/ )

edit : i an not sure if they changed how the spell works on updates.

Originally Posted by Sordak

On casters:
Spell slots that the casters can allocate EVERY 8 HOURS OF REST.
meanwhile a non caster needs to build his ENTIRE CHARACTER to do this ONE thing and CANNOT change it even on level up.



Correction
Spell slots that the WIZARDS can allocate every 8 hours of rest
Sorcerers can't swap their spells
Clerics are restricted to his domain
Warlocks on 3.5e has little versatility. Are more akin to "eldricht snipers"
(...)
Maybe you can say that Witches on Pathinder has the same versatility as Wizards, but in order to say that, you are saying that INT casters are more versatile than CHA and WIS casters. And in this point i agree. And i love to play as spontaneous caster.

Last edited by SorcererVictor; 06/07/19 11:00 PM. Reason: grammar, img and source