Should we remove combat Level casting damage

[Dave M]

Well I think Rob's totally right about its irrelevance above rank 20.  The most extreme example of high level casting damage is actually someone casting level 7s without an arcane focus - only 36 points of casting damage over an hour in a non-combat situation.

Meanwhile rank 0-20 mages and priests can and do kill themselves soley from that much casting damage in their first ever fight.  (and even if not require inefficient low-level heals at a very dangerous time.  Damage that can't be bandaged away and must use up a big chunk of the party's power)

The argument about more freebees is a valid one, but if you think about it the "freebees" given to mages/priests, they had anyway - it just wasn't written down and defined in that way, whereas warriors and scouts HAVE gained new free skills.

I absolutely disagree about training skills being less important/valuable.  To use Dorian as an example, his training skills are undoubtably his most important most character and role-defining skills.  In fact priests and mages generally spend most their standing on spells/invocations, so training skills are a big part of how they can differentiate themselves.  Dampening field doesn't do that.

I agree Rob saying it gimps your character is a bit ridiculous, but taking dampening field only takesaway choices mean missing out on high level spell choices (because you dont have additional spells and thus only have the prerequisites for high level.versions of the standard spells), or powerful enchanting skills (because you don't have the prerequisites)... and so on.  Everything else has value later but dampening field quickly becomes next to useless.

I couldn't recommend dampening field to any starting mage despite the debilitating casting damage at first.
If dampening field were to become also purchasable as a training skill by other guilds as low rank training it gives everyone a way to better define their character.  (e.g. Dorian doesnt want it now, but he would have considered it then, with 50 ranks of casting damage ahead of him.)