So About That Bad Rep of Yours?

I promised y'all a story.

Some years ago we were playing Rolemaster Standard System  (RMMS) which is basically like D&D with more detail and realism. I decide to try a Mage which is the magic User of the setting, a generic spell caster type.

I'm 5th level which is maybe 3rd in D&D , closer to 2.5

The setting is a tavern  and of course a fight breaks out,

Soon people are reaching for blades.

Its my initiative and so I say "I prep a Frost Ball."

Now spells in RMSS require a roll to go off and the more rounds you spend on this, the easier the roll.

Frost Ball is  not a strong spell, its not a Hadoken or Kamehameha type  effect, its a modest effect more likely to stun than kill and its blast radius , 10 feet wouldn't wreck everything in sight. Its not perfect for a barfight but I didn't think a sleep spell would help at the time.

Two rounds go by and I drop the spell and simple bash the bad guy unconscious with my staff.

There after my fellow players assumed I was "That  guy who plays blast crazy  mages." all for a low level, moderately powered spell I never even  cast.

Now after some years I moved on and into my new group.

We are now playing D&D 5e . I'm playing the boxed set iconic elf wizard. I changed nothing basically.

In our explorations we run into a nasty level boss with a lot of henchmen . Seeing a real good chance we would get killed and thinking the guy we were supposed to rescue was already dead and a dwarf to boot  I use my scroll of fireball.

Now I can almost see everyone gasping but you see Evoker Wizards in 5e can exclude a number of people from a spell equal to the spells level. I make a quick judgement call, figure who can take it even if they fail the save and  use the scroll. The Dwarf Cleric in the party gets singed but the fight becomes a curbstomp. We take much less damage than we would have otherwise. In other words I did my job

But what do I get ? I'm the guy who plays crazy blast wizards.

Le Sigh ...