Quote Originally Posted by nonsi View Post
Some of the ideas in "Philosopher's Stone" (namely ranges and durations) are also expressed in my overhaul codex, but they require adjustments for practically any spell anyone's using around the gaming table. That's definitely not minimalistic.
I don't follow. You're saying that reducing range and long durations makes the majority of spells unusable? That is simply false. A few spells lose their function, but not a majority.
The metamagic clause is irrelevant for PHB, since PHB doesn't contain tools/mechanisms for metamagic price reduction.
It's not a PHB only ruleset, the point is you have to make your changes at the PHB level in order for them to matter. The anti-reduction clauses are specifically there because obviously you're not playing PHB only, most core-only people seem to think nothing needs fixing anyway.
The rules for choosing a spell, aiming and SR just make things less fun (for me at least). That's crippling, not toning down. At some point, a player wants to feel that his spellcaster PC can do more than one thing per round. The purpose, from my PoV, is to make sure that this doesn't make spellcasters own the game - contrary to removing that option from the gaming table altogether.
Discussion in the thread points out that while you're prevented from casting more than one spell or scroll per round, there's no clause against wands or other magic items. Considering how most of the natively swift/immediate action spells are 4th level or lower and are best spammed from wands anyway, there's still plenty of room to do more than one thing per round. You just have to invest a little effort instead of doing it nearly for free, make some preparations, be a Wizard in the proper sense. Reduction in area/targets doesn't change the fact that you're still hitting multiple targets, and actually increases the value of existing wide area spells which barely see use when the standard 20' radius is so huge you don't need them (more than Colossal in fact). As for spell resistance: there are multiple spells, feats, classes, and magic items which give bonuses to beat that, as well as plenty of spells that don't have direct effects on targets and plenty (a majority?) of monsters that don't even have spell resistance. Almost every single SR:no spell should be on the ban/nerf list to begin with. The Stone does nothing to reduce the raw cosmic power of magically kicking someone out of the fight: it just forces you to do so from a slightly more dangerous range and with slightly less room for error.
I'm not saying that it is absolutely impossible any more to abuse anything with my proposed changes. What I am saying, is that now it would be significantly harder,
We probably disagree on the implications of the word "fix." A list of all the worst stuff to ban doesn't fix it, it just bans it. Removing Fighters and Barbarians and using Warblade instead doesn't fix the former either. The word "fix" itself is singular, a fix can only fix one thing at a time. And a page long list of top-down fixes is no longer minimalist. But clogging up a thread with arguments about what it should be called usually annoys people so that's all.

I made my point with my link and it seems that you are aware of the points it raised. I don't think ignoring spell ranges and durations is a good idea when it's such a root problem and is so easily addressed, but it doesn't match a ban/substitution list very well. Forcing all non-casters into classes that have extra action economy and/or supernatural effects shifts the gap a bit. I just look at the list and see it could easily be 3x the length without breaking a sweat. A few years ago the thread would have been hopping and you'd have arguments all over about stuff people'd want on the list that you don't, but most of that discussion's dead nowadays, since most people have either made their own lists or decided they don't need a hard list. I'm obviously in the latter camp of course, while I like the Stone changes I haven't had a group that needed it-hardly anyone I've played with can be bothered to run a caster let alone push it to the point they need nerfing.