Rob

First off, mage touch spells are lame. No mage should be wading into combat. Remove the concept entirely.

Second, magic doesn't have to scale up in circles. Paul's argument applies to every spell... what would a 6th level Haste look like? An 8th level Sleep spell? Actually, if you look at Fireball vs. Delayed Blast, the only real difference is removing the damage die cap. Most spells, when they 'scale up', don't scale in terms of raw power, just duration or range.

Third, using 1E as a model of anything sucks. That's why we all moved on in the first place. Let's leave dead dogs alone, so to speak.

Fourth, I like save for half. It doesn't mean you 'ducked the fireball', actually. It means you resisted the magical energies. Fireball in my view didn't create a physical explosion- it was magical energy. 'Ducking the fireball' is an easy/lazy way to describe it, but saving throws should still be in place. It lets characters who don't have a lot of hp, but survive on guile and luck, well, it lets them survive.

Fifth, yeah, True Strike is lame. Summoning though- in my game, 'summoning' was a misnomer. 'Gating' was true summoning, there's a guy somewhere else, and you bring him here. I differentiated w.r.t 'conjuration', which created a new thing. Basically like a physical illusion. I like Monster Conjuring I through VIII, I think they're the potentially the best and most interesting of the damage-dealing spells. Again, it's just a bit of magical energy crafted into a monster-like form for a short while. If you have problems with this, then all of mage magic is suspect- Identify? Feather Fall? Leave conjurations.

So, I'm a 7th level Mage. I haven't maxed out my spell circle progression, trying to be a bit more well-rounded. I cast my butchest spell, a 4th circle Fireball! And I do... 6 hp to about three targets? Uh, that's awfully fucking weak. We don't have to include Tenser's Transformation and Haste, but Fireball needs more kick behind it than that, actually.

Hmm.