Speaking of spells - due to being brought up many times - my opinion is they need to stop having level 1 spells be used in 2nd levels (or subsequent spell slots) to up their power. Perhaps they changed the rules in 5E, but in previous editions the spells just scaled up as you leveled and didn't take up a higher spell slot unless you added a meta-magic feat to it. Did this change? If so my apologies.
Yes, this changed. Now many spells can be upcasted by using a higher level spell slot -- a sort of inherent meta-magicking if you will -- to have greater effect (and some, like Counterspell, need to be upcasted to counter higher level spells).
Damage cantrips now improve with levels, however, about every four or five I think, and gain more damage dice.
