No one in my RPG group travels to a dungeon without rope. It is an unwritten rule to travel light and to travel with rope. At a Pax East Q&A, 5e designers decided that "fireball" was the best spell, at least as far as flavor and satisfaction. They both acknowledged, as a damage dealing spell it is fundamentally risky due to its unpredictability. Whereas "charm" spells -- if successful prove more effective than damage spells because their effect is absolute, not conditional. For example, 15 fireball damage is potentially less useful than a successful "sleep" effect. Both damage and "sleep" provide incapacitation. But a status effect such as sleep doesn't care about HP -- only saves. Thus, as the designers reasoned, fireball is mechanically inferior, albeit a preeminently satisfying spell. The crowd literally applauded the designers' choice of fireball as the best spell.
People always talk about how powerful high level wizards are in certain editions of Dungeons and Dragons. The high level caster certainly has some very powerful spells, but at low levels, before wands, scrolls, and staves, prepared spells are chosen based on survival needs -- not flavor or flashiness. My friends joke about how few spells they are allowed to cast at the 1-3 level range, reveling in the challenge of contributing to the party in any useful way without magic. My friends who play successful low level DnD wizards tend to be particularly creative chaps, who manage to scrounge the rules of every available role-playing benefit. Rope has proven to be the tool most capable of preventing TPK (total party kills).
Rope is mundane. Rope is not even a spell. It is an utterly affordable item. It is accessible by any class. And as a DM, I have found rope to be the most disruptive instrument against my plans. Rope has provided the exits I never expected. Rope has saved the lives of those I'd assumed would be damned. Rope has altered the entire course of adventures. DO NOT forget rope on your adventures. That is all.
-J.B. Geany
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