I'm already tired of HAVING to bring astarion every to lockpick worth a damn. He's got a guaranteed spot on my roster because of it. Going somewhere with a sub par group sucks. Gotta take Lae'zel for the creche is annoying.
But....you DON'T have to do this. You can have a MC good at lockpicking (or someone else if you respec them.) You can use the spell knock. You can smash things open. In fact, the level of lockpicking skill Astarion gets is massive overkill for like 99 percent of locks in the game. Between all the bonuses you can apply from things like guidance, advantage from gloves of thieving, and the fact that lockpicking, unlike every other skill in the game, allows you to keep rerolling so long as you have thieves kits, even someone with just a moderate dex bonus is fine.
So a rule set wich castrated spellcaster in a fantasy world is good? It is utter trash! To have only one lvl 6 spell with level 12 is stupid. It is far better than Larians rule set in DOS 2 but they have to buff casters. We neede gear wich gives more lvl. 6 spell slots.
The limited number of spell slots that 5th edition gives you is not at all a "castration." Indeed it's a necessary rebalancing from previous editions (when many more monsters had ways to outright negate magic, or universally high saving throws.) Unlike previous editions, if you choose the right spell, you can almost guarantee it's going to work on a monster. As a caster, you are meant to be choosing your spells judiciously. Just ONE well-placed spell can turn the tide of a battle or make a tough encounter trivial, and often can do so without doing any damage at all.
