I am not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread. The main change I would make is a system wide change, not just for Wizard; it would change skill and roll resolution in general.
I would add a four degrees of success system, ala Pathfinder 2e.
I don't know what the best numbers would be for D&D 5e, but essentially, make it so that any roll for anything can Critically Succeed, Succeed, Fail or Critically Fail. You get a Success or Failure as you can right now - passing or failing the DC. You can get a Critical Success by passing the DC by getting a result equal to or less than the DC plus 5 or 10; whatever static number would best work with the maths for D&D 5e. A Critical Failure is the opposite - failing the DC by getting a result equal to or below the DC minus 5 or 10.
How would this effect spells? For any attack roll spell that typically means that they would generally have a new effect on a Critical Success - doubling the damage. For any basic attack spell where the target has to roll a Saving Throw, you would add a Critical Success - double damage - and a Critical Fail - no damage.
Of course, where this really will have an impact for spells that cause a powerful status effect. If you have a spell like Power Word Stun and a character has to roll against it, for example, the current effect to stun the target would now be it's Critical Failure; a normal Failure would Restrain the target; etc.* Essentially, some of the most powerful 'save or suck' spells would now do something on Success, but their Failure effects would not be as strong. That way, more powerful creatures would not be crippled or completely trivalised by failing one Saving Throw against the Wizard - though if they do, that would be a big, cool moment.
While overrall 5e would require more changes - in general, bringing up the martial classes by making skills way stronger would be the first thing I would do - I think this type of change would be the best, even if it does require a good amount of work when it comes to redesign.
* You may have to add more conditions to help make this work better.
EDIT: I hope this doesn't violate the plus rules around this thread...
In general I think the Wizard, while a focal point for marital versus caster, is not the direct cause of all of these problems and that it is mainly the power within spell versus the power within martials, particularly outside of combat, that is the issue. If you dumpstered Wizard, you wouldn't solve the problem - without taking into account subclasses, I think Cleric is slept on as the uber powerful caster in the system. Raising martials up and doing more system wide things, even more difficult, is likely to solve the problem while keeping the core of the system 5e.
I would add a four degrees of success system, ala Pathfinder 2e.
I don't know what the best numbers would be for D&D 5e, but essentially, make it so that any roll for anything can Critically Succeed, Succeed, Fail or Critically Fail. You get a Success or Failure as you can right now - passing or failing the DC. You can get a Critical Success by passing the DC by getting a result equal to or less than the DC plus 5 or 10; whatever static number would best work with the maths for D&D 5e. A Critical Failure is the opposite - failing the DC by getting a result equal to or below the DC minus 5 or 10.
How would this effect spells? For any attack roll spell that typically means that they would generally have a new effect on a Critical Success - doubling the damage. For any basic attack spell where the target has to roll a Saving Throw, you would add a Critical Success - double damage - and a Critical Fail - no damage.
Of course, where this really will have an impact for spells that cause a powerful status effect. If you have a spell like Power Word Stun and a character has to roll against it, for example, the current effect to stun the target would now be it's Critical Failure; a normal Failure would Restrain the target; etc.* Essentially, some of the most powerful 'save or suck' spells would now do something on Success, but their Failure effects would not be as strong. That way, more powerful creatures would not be crippled or completely trivalised by failing one Saving Throw against the Wizard - though if they do, that would be a big, cool moment.
While overrall 5e would require more changes - in general, bringing up the martial classes by making skills way stronger would be the first thing I would do - I think this type of change would be the best, even if it does require a good amount of work when it comes to redesign.
* You may have to add more conditions to help make this work better.
EDIT: I hope this doesn't violate the plus rules around this thread...
In general I think the Wizard, while a focal point for marital versus caster, is not the direct cause of all of these problems and that it is mainly the power within spell versus the power within martials, particularly outside of combat, that is the issue. If you dumpstered Wizard, you wouldn't solve the problem - without taking into account subclasses, I think Cleric is slept on as the uber powerful caster in the system. Raising martials up and doing more system wide things, even more difficult, is likely to solve the problem while keeping the core of the system 5e.
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