The Spell Book Sweet Spot: Level 3 Spells

[tetramorph]

I've been working on my own rules summary, condensing and reorganization just for my own purposes and "good book study."

I'm condensing the spell descriptions right now and I've noticed something and I wonder if anyone else has noticed this as well:

Level 3 spells are, per their level, simply the best.

I mean, there are obviously some powerful and cool spells 4 through 6. But in terms of bang for the buck, power per relative level, nothing beats level three spells.

I could run a crazy powerful wizard with nothing but spells level 1-3. As long as I kept getting more spells per level, I could conceivably not even miss spell levels 4-6.

I wonder why so many classic and usable spells are concentrated in level 3?

And, do you think the relative underwhelmingness of the levels 4-6 spells could be due to the fact that these are mass-combat spells (from Chainmail, etc.) that make a lot of sense on the battle field but less sense in the dungeon?

Just a speculation.

To Level 3 Spells! Huzzah! Fight on!

[hamurai]

Yep, I've noticed that. We used to say, if you can make it to spell level 3, you can make it anywhere.* My own explanation always was that maybe it's supposed to be another tier of play at 3rd level, from adventurers to heroes. But honestly, I never took the time to check the other classes (at equal XP) or the monsters (at equal HD) in terms of balance/power.

*Edit: We used to play more Dungeon Crawl-like games back in the day when we were younger, so the combat focus of 3rd-level spells was a truly big thing. In our newer campaigns, this has differed a little, as non-combat spells got more usage. Still, 3rd-level spells are powerful.

[delta]

I think the things that probably stick out most are the Dispel/Fireball/Lightning options which were the at-will abilities from Chainmail, and seem to be given levels of about "half maximum" (i.e., 6/2 = 3, or the midpoint of BTPBD's 5 levels, for example). Possibly that was considered first and everything else in the system calibrated around them.

N.B.: In the earliest edition of Chainmail (looking at 2nd Ed. here), there were only 8 spells, and no distinction of spell/power level (any wizard could choose any of the 8 without restriction). Most seem to translate to 2nd or 3rd level in D&D. There were only 2 spells that translate to higher level: Conjuration of an Elemental and Moving Terrain. (Arguably Conjure Elemental was balanced with its special attack-the-caster drawback, and so could have been lower level.) Everything else originated in D&D and got back-ported, to my understanding.

(To begin with I thought you were talking about the Sup-I spells in levels 7-9; don't even get me started about those.)