>And now most of the time, I can just shut a spellcaster down,
>because they can't land anything.

They can do similar things about warrior abilities, in a "save" like way. The warrior "saves" against the weaken? The enemy "saves" by wearing +str gear. The warrior saves against some spell? The mage can "save" himself from being bashed or tripped by reducing or flying or whatever. Everything has a counter. But warrior/fighter skills still just don't work sometimes, because you miss, you fail, you make a mistake. Even at 100. Which is fine. It should be the same for the mage. And let's be honest, you can't really shut a spellcaster down. And if you really could, you've forfeited on other things.

>Now I know you mentioned
>teleport, and word. I really don't begrudge anyone their
>ability to get away. They spend enough time getting pounded
>or dying, if those spells aren't perfected. I think of it
>like this, no matter how hard I'm getting beat on, I could
>still say "home". And when a mage has said it over and over
>and over, it would be on a level of that familiarity. If
>nothing else you could just think of it as their guildmaster
>saying "your going to learn to finish these two spells no
>matter what condition your in: Dying, plagued, bleeding out
>etc etc."

They spend enough time getting pounded or dying, if they aren't perfected?? How is that any different from a fighter? I don't get my pincer or disarm or something perfected, I get pounded plenty. How many fights do you see go the other way because someone fails three or four or five times on some skill? It's common.

And why is it any different for a mage that says "home" over and over than for a warrior who pincers over and over? It's not. Frankly, a giant who bashes with inherent ability should be able to do it better than any mage at 100 in anything, because it's inherent, it's not even something to be practiced. But he misses sometimes anyway. He has a greater familiarity. But he misses sometimes anyway.

It's all exactly the same. The fighting classes "learn to finish these skills no matter what condition your in!" the same way the mages do. But sometimes they fail, regardless. It should be the same for mages. Let them fail that word of recall sometimes. Let them fail that teleport sometimes. Nobody is saying make it a 50/50 shot. But there's no way it should be this ultimate reliability that it currently is.