The ranger has to have specific rules for that specific spell to pull it off. The system isn't built to accommodate downcasting; if they wanted a spell to work at lower levels and scale up they'd just make it a lower level spell. There's no way they re-engineer the entire spellcasting system to accommodate downcasting, and not a lot of reason to.
I personally find the downcasting of volley to be pretty lame so I guess Im not terribly excited for more of the same. I think the spell system does need more reason to use low level spells / spell slots at later levels, but that ought to come from spell designs that somehow scale with character level or are just generally useful. I dont think a lvl 2 damage spell that is eventually outpaced by cantrips is good spell design.
I like the idea of down-casting for 1/2 and 1/3 casters. It keeps them from accessing higher powered spells until a later level, while giving them something useful to do with their low level spell slots. In an interesting twist, spells that scale up poorly (fewer added dice and smaller dice size) can scale down extremely well (assuming the change in dice going down is the same as going up).
I mean the sorcerer can sort of downcast wish with its 18th level feature Sorcerous Apotheosis. I like the idea and wish they had a few more features that do something similar for more spells.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So the 1d&d Ranger can downcast Conjure Volley. Would it be interesting to see if all spell-casters can do that?
Would probably limit it to spells 5th level and below.
The ranger has to have specific rules for that specific spell to pull it off. The system isn't built to accommodate downcasting; if they wanted a spell to work at lower levels and scale up they'd just make it a lower level spell. There's no way they re-engineer the entire spellcasting system to accommodate downcasting, and not a lot of reason to.
Please do not contact or message me.
I personally find the downcasting of volley to be pretty lame so I guess Im not terribly excited for more of the same. I think the spell system does need more reason to use low level spells / spell slots at later levels, but that ought to come from spell designs that somehow scale with character level or are just generally useful. I dont think a lvl 2 damage spell that is eventually outpaced by cantrips is good spell design.
I like the idea of down-casting for 1/2 and 1/3 casters. It keeps them from accessing higher powered spells until a later level, while giving them something useful to do with their low level spell slots. In an interesting twist, spells that scale up poorly (fewer added dice and smaller dice size) can scale down extremely well (assuming the change in dice going down is the same as going up).
I mean the sorcerer can sort of downcast wish with its 18th level feature Sorcerous Apotheosis. I like the idea and wish they had a few more features that do something similar for more spells.