You comparing spellcasting power at level 4 in 5e system to high level spellcasting in 3.5/Pathfinder.
Totally bet you can summon frikkin' 500 Devas in Pathfinder: Kingmaker at level 4... owait - you can't, your big bad mega spell is grease + some sort of flame attack at that point. And you can summon a shitty wolf and some other level minor creature as Sylv Sorc. And all that mostly because they made Grease such a god spell in Pathfinder: Kingmaker with how reliable its CC is there and it being flammable on top of it.
So what's the trolling about? Character level 4, second level spells out of nine levels not being awesome enough? Gosh, that's some shocking revelation there, mate. I am totally with you that Larian should let us spam summon devas as level 4 wizard...
Awesome is not necessary to kill goblins... But a spell that just can't kill ANY of them just suck...
I totally agree with that sentences :
"That is so fun and engaging to waste all powerful spells in every encounter and resting after each goblin battle /sarcasm"
That's also a real consequences of Larian's rules.
(Even if yea, you can cheese everything not to rest...)
I mean you say that, but then you also have flipsides like Wizards oneshotting Dragons with thunderwave or simple fire spell setting off Hiroshima reactions.
Heck, you bet Fireball spell alone will be much more powerful in BG3 because it will 100% leave a surface on top of base damage.
Overall it's a mixed bag, when it comes to spellcasting some stuff is weaker, but some stuff is stronger too. Things like Ray of Frost and Firebolt already show how powerful magic will be with a few more levels already when instead of a tiny ice/fire/static puddle/cloud you likely will be able to cover half the battleground with that.
If I know anything about Larian - you'd be having threads crying about how magic is crazy OP after the game launches, once surfaces really come into play. What you have now is just a tiny preview of what's to come once there will be huge AoEs with effects tacked on.
So your argument is that surfaces should/will increase the power of spells ?
I'm sorry but there are PLENTY of spells in D&D that don't involve fire/poison/ice/electricity. What about them ?
Surfaces are cool but they definitely shouldn't be the entire balance of the game. Cantrips are often more powerfull than any level 1 spells and they shouldn't be.
Surfaces should add cool possibilities and/or tactical choices but they shouldn't define what is powerfull and what is not because the game is going to loose a lot of depth.
Just to talk about fire bold what is more powerfull ?
- 40% chance to OS a goblin and 60% to do 1-6 damage (D&D rules)
- or 0% chance to OS a goblin, but 1D6 damage + burning + surfaces damage ? (Larian).
I guess it's two different points of view...
