Magic missile is balanced up to level 6, IMO. It has advantages over other 1st-level offensive spells (autohit, no save, hits incorporeal), but the other ones do more base damage (d4/level to an area with burning hands, d8/level with a touch with shocking grasp, as compared to (d4+1)/2 levels for MM). The broken part ("broken" might be a little strong) is that MM scales up to level 9 while the others only scale up to level 5.
To me, everything you just said proves my point. 3 damaging first level spells. Each with a different die of damage, damage bonus, aoe of effect, 2 have saves, one doesn't. 1 is ranged, 1 is area effect, 1 is personal. Each scales differently.
Yes. The ogre is a giant, and giants apparently have mental pathways that are harder to influence than humanoids. You need to use Charm Monster on the giant. Either that, or play a psion and augment your Psionic Charm power to work on giants (making it the equivalent of a 2nd level power).
Why is this only for Charm Person? Shouldn't Ogre's have this same resistance to illusions, telepathy, etc...? Why am I as a human, not immune to charm person from an Ogre with a level of Wizard? Shouldn't the Ogre wizard need Charm Monster to charm me?
Ok, we aren't going to agree on this. You want each spell to be its on universe. I want each spell to be built on a framework. Would you be open to a compromise?
If we are talking about making a 4.0 version, what would you be willing to give on?
What about some basic rules for spells in general? Similar to how they have rules for what a Cone vs a sphere area of a effect are.
Example:
How about a rule for when or when not a spell can have a save?
How about a rule for how aimed spells can be used or not used?
What happens when you upgrade or degrade an area of effect?
If a monster, instead of a default PC race uses a spell that has racial limitations what are the changes? To use the charm example. If I am playing and ogre, are giants what I can charm with charm person and I need charm monster for humanoids? That would be fine with me, but I would love to see it set down somewhere.