Buffing is not Teamwork
Buffing is not teamwork. Buffing is delegation. The spellcaster doing the buffing is transfering their own powers to the buffed character (who, let’s face it, it’s a fighter or rogue or someone else holding a sharp object) instead of taking actions themselves. The party becomes a micro republic: the spellcaster has elected a representative, and that representative is going to go forward and get things done while the spellcaster sits back and waits.
To be fair, it is not the transfer of power that makes it a problem. It’s the ratio of actions. The buffer casts spells before the fight or early on, usually dropping a few buffs and then waiting while the buffed character takes actions. Every combat round that the spellcaster has nothing to do while the buffed character is fighting with his newfound power is a round that was delegated.
The problem is the spellcaster doing the buffing is actually playing less. If the spellcaster had to cast buffs every round just to keep up (such as if the buff only lasted one round), then the spellcaster could buff but still be a participant in the combat.
Sure it’s rarely that clear cut. Even if the wizard has used all his powerful spells to buff the fighter, there are always magic missiles to be cast, right? Sure! But the power transfer means that the spellcaster’s direct contribution is going to be weaker than if the spellcaster didn’t buff and had spells of his own to use.
Do my dirty work
Some players are perfectly happy delegating. That might be their whole strategy (“Save me Wyck!”). There’s not a thing wrong with that. Some players don’t like tactical combat either, so this could just be their way of helping out but then not having to deal with the details. That’s fine.
Most players do not have this attitude and they get pressured into buffing. First it’s only on special occasions, but after you’ve done it once the sharp object crowd certainly wouldn’t mind having it all the time. As they sit quietly waiting for the spellcasters to prepare spells, they can’t resist the urge to throw in a little suggestion that a barkskin or two gets on the list. Yes, bull’s strength is a gateway drug. The spellcaster is soon put in the position of defending their own character choices, arguing why they aren’t showering the whole party with greater invisibility (“But it would be so cool!”).
Narcolepsy
So the spellcaster buffs, and during combat the spellcaster doesn’t want to just sit there so the spellcaster casts direct effect spells too. Because of the buffs the fighters have an easy time, the fiery breathing flagon goes down quickly, and everyone cheers and is ready to move on. Except the spellcaster is now drained of spells having cast buffs before the fight and levin bolts during. Weak in mana. Lacking eldritch energies. Low on the witch-o-meter.
The fighters are fine (having taken less damage because of the mighty buffs they received) so they want to press on. The spellcaster can just accept her fate and lurk in the middle of the marching order, basically doing nothing for the rest of the day, or press for a halt and camp. Nothing more comforting than a camp fire at ten o’clock in the morning.
Likely other players will grouse and blame the spellcasters for the inexplicable short day, but they are forgetting it was the buff that got them here in the first place. They are healthy because they borrowed the buffer’s power.
And if the spellcaster does just hide in the marching order and endure being powerless the rest of the day they get to play even less.
Footnote: Heal me!
So isn’t healing a lot like buffing after the fact? The healer uses up spells to bring the fighters up to full strength instead of preventing them from losing that strength in the first place, losing his own spellcasting power in return.
Giving clerics the ability to drop prepared spells for healing (Third Edition D&D) means the healer doesn’t have to waste slots “waiting” to heal, but it also means spells used in combat cannot be used for healing later, so the cleric is pressured to conserve spells to benefit the fighters later on.
A cleric is by definition something of a buffing class, including spells that benefit the whole party. It is often more effective for the cleric to cast spells to prevent damage than to heal it afterwards. But the cleric also has reasonable fighting abilities, so a cleric with no spells can just switch roles and be a fighter, making the cleric a little more resistant to the buff trap.
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Yes, 4E soundly fixes all of this. Huzzah.
I’m not sure casting a buff spell every round qualifies as “playing”. I mean, at that point, it’s more like plate spinning. At least with the longer duration buffs, you can cast them during downtime and then when you get into combat, the caster can then cast spells that effect the enemy. If your party expects you to cast *all* your spells as buffs and then be a jerkwad with a light crossbow for the rest of the day, that’s not so much a flaw in the casting system as it is fellow players with somewhat unrealistic expectations.
4e’s innovation to me seems to be the option to “buff/heal *and* do something else”. I’ve only played a few games of 4e, but what I’ve noticed is that most things that help the other players tend to be piggybacked onto other actions, like attacks. The cleric attacks, and gives me a healing surge, and so on.
Re how 4e rates on the ‘buffing is not teamwork’ meter, here’s a quote from my original post (above), April 2006:
“The problem is the spellcaster doing the buffing is actually playing less. If the spellcaster had to cast buffs every round just to keep up (such as if the buff only lasted one round), then the spellcaster could buff but still be a participant in the combat.”
Done and done.
higgins:
In 4e, you can cast certain spells all day, certain spells once per encounter ( to be recovered after a short rest), and certain spells only once per day. No more preparing spells, or spell slots, or mana points, or any of that bother.
Ok, no one has posted on this in a bit..but i’m just reading it now.
Since I love playing clerics I run into this a lot. I have all these cool spells, but what do I cast? Some form of Cure and buff spells. I don’t mind buffing others. My current cleric can hold his own in pretty much any martial situation (at our level of course).
This is why I have fallen in love with (shameless plug that gets me nothing coming) Monte Cook’s Book of Experimental Might. The ideas about healing in there are lots of fun. Basically the “healer” doesn’t use up his heals per day, rather a character can only get healed X amount of times a day. That puts it on the other characters and allows a group to adventure longer before a cleric runs out of cure spells and everything crashes to a halt for the “night.”
I kind of disagree with this article. It sounds like most of your complaints are with particular design flaws in 3rd Edition D&D. While I agree these are real problems (I’ve played the wizard who wants to lightning bolt but instead is pressured into haste), I don’t think they can be generalized to apply to all buffing mechanics. In general, buffing is teamwork, almost by definition (since it requires a team), and in some games it can be very dynamic and interesting.
higgins: Sounds like D&D 4th Edition is following your line of thinking! :)
Really? 8O The first information rather gave Diablo-like feel but if you say so… Yet I’m never going to believe they are going for flexible magic! Or did you just mean the resting aspect? Could you elaborate your point please?
Irving: I’d say teamwork is the fighter getting into a good position to allow the rogue to flank and get sneak attacks. It’s the druid casting /entangle/ to keep the melee brute enemies in place, while the ranger peppers the hapless beasts with arrows. Stuff like that.
higgins: Sounds like D&D 4th Edition is following your line of thinking! :)
Ben: Excellent observations.
I think the dog is buried in the system design − the spellcasters get their spell refreshments once in 24 hours. Why oh why? Why cannot spellcaster regain their power after a regular rest or after a long pause after the casting? And how does it make sense, that spellcasters leave their most powerful spells for the last, to act as a hidden trump? Shouldn’t the spellcaster be tired from all the casting that went on before? I have also never understood the reasoning behind “preparing spells” if to leave out the game balance issue.
If spells weren’t prepared in advance and one could regain his power while not casting spells, this really wouldn’t be an problem. I designed my own magic system to deal with these issues.
So, I’m curious. If buffing isn’t teamwork, what is?
Bull Strength a gateway drug. Killing me… but only because it’s so true.