Indeed, Moderate (They both are at -4, whcih is what I was remembering, but Sever adds an additional Composure (3) test to the mix)
However, Moderate or Severe, it is a trigger that will keep them incapacitated for a bit. But yes, if you want to really screw them, make it a Sever FOR THAT SYSTEM... Problem Solved...

I've thrown enough fireballs in my days to know that average is far from average

i know what you mean there. i play 2nd edition D&D fairly often and manage about 20 damage on 10d6 on a regular basis - very frustrating because in 2nd edition, you can often actually do something quite meaningful with a fireball (3rd edition basically makes it all about the save-or-die spells). it's depressing when you throw a level 10 fireball at a group of 2-3 HD creatures and have to worry about whether you're going to actually get rid of them or not...

on the plus side, my damage with lightning bolt seems to do just fine, and my magic missile is actually quite consistently very close to the average.

My Fireballs and Lightning Bolts tend to fall at average or higher, more often than not, while my MM's are pretty shoddy. Almost all of my wife's Magic Missiles (and Firel/Lightning spells as well) almost always hit very close to the maximum, much to the chagrin of the rest of the team members who are often in danger close.

Nah it's all about the No save and suck or Save or suck, even if you save you're still hurting.

Spells like stinking cloud or enervate

Funny, I have never had any complaints about Edition 3.5 in that regard. *shrug*

My only complaint was the save-or-no effect spells. I avoided them, generally. Saves were too easy to make, and I didn't like all-or-nothing gambles. I always planned for the enemy to make every save, and for me to fail them all. That way, the only deviations from The Plan, were in my favor.

Who said I was complaining?
I'm all for subterfuge and battlefield control over raw damage

Understood _Pax_ and Lionhearted.

Hahahaha.

The GM for the first 3.X edition game I joined - it started before the 3.0E MM was published - had a habit of combats taking place in a largely uninteresting, flat stretch of land. No terrain to try and leverage advantage from, except a few trees here and there.

...

So my Wizard (replacement for my first character) collected every Wall spell in the bloody books. I figured, "if the GM won't give me terrain to use, I'll make my own!" The (slight) look of pained frustration when, at least half the time, I'd manage to place a wall, or a turret (love the Shapeables like WoStone), or whatever, in EXACTLY teh right place ... that was absolutely delicious, every time it happened.

He asked me one time, "why do you keep casting those wall spells? Why not a Fireball or something?"

My answer was, "Because the walls are more effective than most of my direct-damage spells. Besides, I'm a necromancer, and picked Evocation to be locked out of. Plus you keep throwing us against Golems and negative-energy-immune stuff, anyway."

...

Good times, good times. (The one time when I ended a big fight with twice as many HP as I'd started it - yayy, Vampiric Touch - was especially fun. I think he nearly went crosseyed over that. ;D )

My druidsorc (w. the ultrabroken Arcane hierophant PrC) makes for great fun. Disabled an entire warband of hobgoblins using stinking clouds to blind their archers and nuke their mages. Then I put all their brutes on the other side of an artic wind (druid spell from Frostburn, like CoC and GoW on crack) All the while flying around out of range in dire hawk form and having my Smilodon familiar companion pounce weakened targets.

Everyone should have a Smilodon Familiar Companion.

Druid? Ah, crap I can't remember the name of it, but there was a Spontaneous Druid spellcaster class, really liked it. Charisma/Wisdom hybrid, IIRC. That'd go awesomely with Sorceror, though I don't recall how Druid-only the Arcane Heirophant was.

heh, my preferred spells in 2nd edition change a lot over time. stinking cloud is great (and even better for being a level 2 spell when there's not a ton of good combat options for level 2 spells in 2nd edition) when you first get it, starts to slow down quite a bit over time. web is obscenely good and remains good for a long time (though you have to be picky about using it at the right time). of course, as you fight tougher opponents they make the saves more often, but one of my favourite times was when the group managed to get their hands on several potions of vitality, which made you immune to poison... which meant i could just drop stinking cloud right on top of ourselves with no drawbacks for us (obviously, this was a drawback for anything that wanted to melee us though ^^ )

and magic missile is of course the old standby for being a guaranteed hit against many enemies.

just recently in the current game i'm playing got access to level 4 spells, and improved invisibility... good times (the group's rogue is enjoying being able to damage stuff for once, what with getting backstab almost 100% of the time now)

Sorc was purely for RP reasons, without using ultra munchkinism, wizard is stronger.
She's all about the tribal shaman vibe, frequently having animal like mannerisms in the way she moves and interacts with people. Snarls, standing crouched with your hands leaned on your legs, tilting your head when examing someone, sniffing... Those sorts of things.
She despises civilisation, especially cities. She has little sympathy for citydwellers and only sides with nature. Gives her quite an empathic connection with her companion, that she refuses to not have run free (it's okey he's smarter then the average orc)
Based her off Sorsha and the brownies in Willow and several characters from the old Elfquest comics.

One of my favorite classes is/was the Artificer, from Eberron. Love the idea of it. And it provides the GM with a safety valve, in case he sets some DC too high, or puts in a foe he _thought_ the group had the weapons to face, but doesn't actually. (That early 3E GM I mentioned previously did that; put us against some golems with a stupendous DR, something like 30/+3 ... and was all, "what, I gave you guys that +3 warhammer", and we were "and we SOLD it because none of us use warhammers, remember that?" (Our main fighters were a 2H swordsman, and a Polearm-wielder. Funny thing, the swordsman was our other WIZARD. Who liked to shapechange into Trolls and things.)