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This is a work in progress. No one in my group, myself included, likes the arcane bonded item rules. Since wizards do not gain familiars in my setting (or anyone other than witches, save in special circumstances requested by a player), my players asked me to revise the bonded item with certain elements borrowed from some pretty obvious sources. So far, this is the result.
Most of it is pretty straight forward; the "arcane bolt" is based on a suggestion by one of my players who is quite fond of the "staff" mechanics from the Dragon Age console/computer game, which he felt was a better idea than "shoot them with my crossbow" - with which I agree.
I'd appreciate constructive comments and feedback, as usual.
The mechanics for the wizard's bonded object as written are indeed somewhat lackluster.
Arcane Bolt: I agree that this option feels more thematic and the damage seems balanced (though most wizard schools already offer a low-damage attack power at 1st level).
Energy attunement: This ability is too powerful in my opinion. Being able to circumvent energy immunities is a huge boon for any wizard and it should remain the evoker's specialty. Maybe transforming only half the damage into your chosen element would be more balanced, but flavorwise it's weird.
Signature bond: Adding a limited spontaneous casting ability works, though it could use some limitation (for example: the spell must belong to the wizard's specialty school), so you can't have your pick of nice utility spells (like teleport)).
Maybe you could design some abilities that focus more on the arcane schools (an abjurer's staff helps to counterspell, etc.)?
Also, I hope your neck feels better!
Also, I hope your neck feels better!
Thanks! It does today, which is why I've been more active on blabber-mouthing on anything and everything. I'm off to dinner now, but will try to address your comments soon as I get back, hopefully with actual solutions.=)
I must admit that i dont Think wizards need the power boost you give them here. I Think the arcane Bond gives some flexibility to the wizard. But adding more power to the most powerfull class in the game is silly IMOP.
But if giving more to the strongest is no problem, if pehaps every body is a wizard, i like it.
I'm rather fond of the ability to spontaneously cast one spell from the spellbook, but its all good. I have some concerns.
Especially at low levels, I would say the wizard is at risk of being without his focus. A concentration check of 20 + spell level is going to be pretty difficult. A wizard already has fewer spells than other spellcasters, and it would suck to have them fizzle out. Can he have more than one arcane focus?
There are cleric domains and arcane schools that offer abilites like arcane bolt, but have a limit on the number of times per day they can be used. is yours intended to have unlimited use? If so, the potency should remain close to that of a cantrip. Also, you should shorten the chart. There are redundant lines.
Eschew Materials seems unneccessary to me. Sure, it only replaces a 5 GP item, but being able to do this for free step on the toes of the sorcerer, IMHO.
Illumination. I would make this shed light as a candle instead of a torch. Shedding light as a torch is more or less equal to a free cantrip.
The traits are pretty neat. You could use a couple more though. I like the thematic element of choosing an energy type, but isn't not having an energy type kind of better than having one?
Similarly, delivering a touch spells as a ranged touch spell is pretty neat, but I'm unclear how it works. So I cast shocking grasp one round, and have to wait until the next round to cast it? Touch spells hold the charge on a miss. I assume the charge is lost on a ranged touch attack?
Since arcane bolt is a normal ranged attack, that makes it not very powerful. I think it would be okay if it were a ranged touch attack since it's only slightly more powerful than a cantrip at most levels. I do feel like the wizard gets too many traits, especially when there's not many choices. Signature spell is the obvious choice and after a few of those, you're basically a sorcerer. If it were up to me, a wizard would only be able to take that trait once.
These rules only let a player choose a weapon as a bonded item. What if they want something like an amulet, orb, or book?
Eschew materials feels out of place to me.
Finally, the deliver touch spells ability needs rewritten as it suffers from the same problem the Myrmidarch archetype's ranged spellstrike. A wizard can't deliver a spell as a full-round action if they already spent their standard (or otherwise) to cast the spell. Instead, it should say this: "As a full-round action, a wizard can cast a touch spell with a casting time of 1 standard action and affect one creature within 30 feet on a successful ranged touch attack."
Firstly, thanks for the responses! I'm going to number responses in the quotes so it'll be easier to see what I'm addressing, since I'm trying to answer all at once.
The mechanics for the wizard's bonded object as written are indeed somewhat lackluster.
1. Arcane Bolt: I agree that this option feels more thematic and the damage seems balanced (though most wizard schools already offer a low-damage attack power at 1st level).
2. Energy attunement: This ability is too powerful in my opinion. Being able to circumvent energy immunities is a huge boon for any wizard and it should remain the evoker's specialty. Maybe transforming only half the damage into your chosen element would be more balanced, but flavorwise it's weird.
3. Signature bond: Adding a limited spontaneous casting ability works, though it could use some limitation (for example: the spell must belong to the wizard's specialty school), so you can't have your pick of nice utility spells (like teleport)).
4. Maybe you could design some abilities that focus more on the arcane schools (an abjurer's staff helps to counterspell, etc.)?
Also, I hope your neck feels better!
1. It isn't as bad as I was concerned it was going to be, initially. When my buddy suggested something similar to dragon age staves, I immediately thought he wanted his staff to fire blasts like a warlock's eldritch blast. When he explained he felt like an idiot loading, shooting, winching a crossbow in most fights, I could actually see where he was coming from.
2. I think you're right. I may leave it to alter only the ranged damage of the staff, as it seems like it's more fitting as a class feature of a class/prestige/class/specialization.
3. The teleport line is one of my most hated series of spells, second only to the divination school. I ended up, instead of "banning" teleport, going with the suggested course you can find here titled, Waypoint Style Teleportation (3.5e Variant Rule). I still hate the line of spells (I'm holding a grudge), but this has made things much more palatable for me, overall. You're right, though, there needs to be some sort of limitation on it (and several posters below seem to agree) spelled out in detail to avoid hiccups
4. I'm definitely agreeable to that. In my setting, all specialists follow the "Sin Magic Specialist" rules, though it has nothing to due with "Sin" or Thassilonian fluff, so I may look to some of that for inspiration. As it stands, I keep thinking up ideas that are already tied into school specializations. I'll have to give it a lot more thought.
I must admit that i dont Think wizards need the power boost you give them here. I Think the arcane Bond gives some flexibility to the wizard. But adding more power to the most powerfull class in the game is silly IMOP.
But if giving more to the strongest is no problem, if pehaps every body is a wizard, i like it.
We use a lot of house rules to tone wizard's down - don't get me wrong, they're still top dog in terms of what they can do, but they're much more manageable overall. I need to be more mindful of that when I post things. The goal is to give them something comprable, but of slightly less power than a familiar. Other posters agree with you and I'm going to dial things down a notch or two.
1. I'm rather fond of the ability to spontaneously cast one spell from the spellbook, but its all good. I have some concerns.
2. Especially at low levels, I would say the wizard is at risk of being without his focus. A concentration check of 20 + spell level is going to be pretty difficult. A wizard already has fewer spells than other spellcasters, and it would suck to have them fizzle out. Can he have more than one arcane focus?
3. There are cleric domains and arcane schools that offer abilites like arcane bolt, but have a limit on the number of times per day they can be used. is yours intended to have unlimited use? If so, the potency should remain close to that of a cantrip. Also, you should shorten the chart. There are redundant lines.
4. Eschew Materials seems unneccessary to me. Sure, it only replaces a 5 GP item, but being able to do this for free step on the toes of the sorcerer, IMHO.
5. Illumination. I would make this shed light as a candle instead of a torch. Shedding light as a torch is more or less equal to a free cantrip.
6. The traits are pretty neat. You could use a couple more though. I like the thematic element of choosing an energy type, but isn't not having an energy type kind of better than having one?
7. Similarly, delivering a touch spells as a ranged touch spell is pretty neat, but I'm unclear how it works. So I cast shocking grasp one round, and have to wait until the next round to cast it? Touch spells hold the charge on a miss. I assume the charge is lost on a ranged touch attack?
1. I like it too, but it may be more beneficial than I intend, overall. Unintentionally, it parallels an Arcanist class feature.
2. It is brutal, I agree. Believe it or not, I took that straight from the standard Arcane Bond (which I've mentioned before is kinda crappy). At the moment, in both the normal version and this one, they're limited to one focus and it takes a week before you can replace it. It is one of those things where you'd (as a player) hope your GM wasn't the sort to snatch it all willy nilly. I'm not sure whether to change it or not, honestly (I'm torn).3. The intent is unlimited and to replace any need for use of crossbows, bows, and the like (style & substance) - scaling with caster level is intended only to keep the damage relevant to a small degree. One thing I did not make clear is that it is supposed to be treated as a ranged attack, i.e. generate an attack of opportunity. Does that addition address your concern? I think I fixed that part (the chart). Google hates my imported documents.
4. Fair point both you and Cyrad make. I'll yank it out.
5. The original wording I used for Illumination was literally the light cantrip, but I dropped that immediately do to certain house rule implications to that of a torch. Would meeting at the halfway point still be too much, i.e. 10 foot normal; 20 foot dim?
6. That's an area severely lacking, as you and others point out. More do need to be added and I'll try to get some in shortly. You've caught a second error I failed to add, but for some reason I thought I had. In the event the damage type is that of the weapon, i.e. bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, it is supposed to be affected by physical DR, such as a barbarian's.
7. I'm going to use Cyrad's wording to address that, as well as go back through my HR documents to replace similar wording for other things.
1. Since arcane bolt is a normal ranged attack, that makes it not very powerful. I think it would be okay if it were a ranged touch attack since it's only slightly more powerful than a cantrip at most levels.2. I do feel like the wizard gets too many traits, especially when there's not many choices. Signature spell is the obvious choice and after a few of those, you're basically a sorcerer. If it were up to me, a wizard would only be able to take that trait once.
3. These rules only let a player choose a weapon as a bonded item. What if they want something like an amulet, orb, or book?
4. Eschew materials feels out of place to me.
5. Finally, the deliver touch spells ability needs rewritten as it suffers from the same problem the Myrmidarch archetype's ranged spellstrike. A wizard can't deliver a spell as a full-round action if they already spent their standard (or otherwise) to cast the spell. Instead, it should say this: "As a full-round action, a wizard can cast a touch spell with a casting time of 1 standard action and affect one creature within 30 feet on a successful ranged touch attack."
1. I tried to keep it as moderate as possible, due to the variance on damage type selection. I may make that alteration to ranged touch, but I'll likely keep the AoO in place as with normal ranged attacks, as I'd like to allow the wizard to use his iterative with it, though I'm not married to the idea.
2. Lack of selection is definitely a problem. I hope to carefully increase that. As far as signature spell, I'm tempted to limit it to one as you suggest or two.3. I think I can live with expanding it to amulet or orb or ring, for example. I want to avoid book, however. I am extremely concerned that someone would make their spellbook their bonded object; I'm not normally big on hand holding, but I would really not want to chance the "eggs in one basket".
4. I'm going to go ahead and yank it.
5. Thank you, very much, for the proper phrasing of that. It's what I get for copy/pasting.
Arcane Bolt
Its up to you if you want to mention the AoO, its fine. Making any ranged attack provokes so its redundant. Sometimes redundancy is neccessary, sometimes it confuses a reader. I would write it up something like this.
A wizard can use the object of his arcane bond to launch a weapon-like bolt of magical energy at an enemy. As a standard action, he can make a ranged attack against an enemy that deals 1d4 points of damage. The bolt has a range increment of 30 feet, a critical range of 20, a critical mutiplier of x2, and it's damage type (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing) is the same as that of the arcane bond object. At 3rd level and every four levels thereafter, the bolt's damage die increases by one step.
Not perfect, but its a little clearer (to my brain at least).
And yes, decrease the range of the illumination. I would make it 5 ft, but its no biggie.
I'm currently working on my own wizard rewrite (which is part of a much larger system rewrite). And one of the things I focused on was the bond.
I'm not going to elaborate much but essentially I've got the Scribe, which uses their book as their focus (it is much more durable and can even be called at will at higher levels), the Enchanter, which uses a staves or crystals as their foci which can be enchanted and can have spells cast from it, and the Spellblade which uses a weapon as their focus and cast through their weapon (I was just mixing in the magus).
Then again, I'm also trying to rewrite the spell system, because in my opinion most spells 5th or higher shouldn't be done without a whole ritual and some really rare and exotic materials that would be a quest on their own.
I'm currently working on my own wizard rewrite (which is part of a much larger system rewrite). And one of the things I focused on was the bond.
I'm not going to elaborate much but essentially I've got the Scribe, which uses their book as their focus (it is much more durable and can even be called at will at higher levels), the Enchanter, which uses a staves or crystals as their foci which can be enchanted and can have spells cast from it, and the Spellblade which uses a weapon as their focus and cast through their weapon (I was just mixing in the magus).
Then again, I'm also trying to rewrite the spell system, because in my opinion most spells 5th or higher shouldn't be done without a whole ritual and some really rare and exotic materials that would be a quest on their own.
Sounds pretty neat, particularly the style divide with your implements, though you have my condolences on your rewrite of the spell system of 6th & higher. Even that grouping is extremely large.
I've considered full rewrites many times and even started several before archiving the work and ultimately just fixing a few major problems here and there. It has nothing to do with being lazy, though I am extremely lazy, but the volume of material is so immense...
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I made some "overhauls" this evening, including rewriting signature spell; reintroducing the ability normally granted by an arcane bond, but with some changes (see Arcane Reservoir: Spontaneous Spell - its similar, but a tiny bit more versatile than the original); reset the bond to allow a variety of items; used Cieran's rewrite for the arcane bolt; reduced the Illumination ability to 5' (10' dim); reworked traits as talents & added 2 new talents, while cleaning up a bit of the language on a few of the originals; used Cyrad's version for Deliver Touch Spells; and hopefully took into account the other suggestions made I didn't directly address as of yet.
I still need to more new talents (school specific and some general options), but the inspiration for them is coming very slowly; suggestions are always welcome.
May I be so bold to suggest removing the arcane school powers entirely? That way, you could maintain balance with the core wizard and open up some design space for new talents (and avoid any redundancies that will occur inevitably). Since your game does not use familiars, that shouldn't raise any problems.
Of course, it would require some work to design those talents and it probably goes beyond the scope of what you aim for. I could imagine something like the following:
Abjuration: Once per day, you can create a dampening aura with a radius of 10 feet centered around your bonded object that lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Intelligence modifier. Any hostile spell effect within this area takes a penalty to its caster level equal to one, plus one for every five wizard levels you possess.
Divination: Select a creature type from the ranger's favoured enemy list. Whenever a creature of that type is within 60 feet, your bonded object glows with an eery light. You must concentrate (a standard action) in order to detect the exact number and location of creatures within proximity. You may select this talent more than once. Each time you select this talent, you may choose a new type of creatures that can be detected.
...
Also, a talent that allows you to call the bonded object to your hand would be an obvious choice. Talents that make the object seem like something else (as the glamered ability) or prevent others from using it would work as well.
May I be so bold to suggest removing the arcane school powers entirely? That way, you could maintain balance with the core wizard and open up some design space for new talents (and avoid any redundancies that will occur inevitably). Since your game does not use familiars, that shouldn't raise any problems.
Of course, it would require some work to design those talents and it probably goes beyond the scope of what you aim for....
I love the idea and your examples, despite the fact it is beyond the scope of what I'm shooting for, but it will be a hard sell to my players (based on the answers I got from a couple of them about it).
Also, a talent that allows you to call the bonded object to your hand would be an obvious choice. Talents that make the object seem like something else (as the glamered ability) or prevent others from using it would work as well.
I added the teleporting one as you suggested, but haven't gotten to the others quite yet.
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Added new talents (hardened, scry, tocsin, transfer essence, veiled, warp, and warp sigil). Warp sigil is going to interact with the teleport rules we use for the setting, so it's just a place holder.
Transfer Essence is inspired by the Peter MacNicol movie Dragonslayer. I'm undecided if it's "over-powered" or not. Rogues in my setting have a talent which allows them to cheat death once per day, but with no real cost other than the use of it.
I really need to clean up the language in terms of using the same "narrative".
I wanted to second what amanuensis said about removing the arcane school powers, but not in the same way. Perhaps the wizard loses his arcane school to make up for the powers granted by this new feature.
Hm. Judging from Cieran and Amanuensis' comments, I may have already exceeded my original goal of "just making it worth taking" by a good bit.
Heading to the park with my daughter now, but when I get back, I'll break it down into two versions: 1. A straight replacement for arcane bond toned down from the current revision; and 2. A full-fledged archetype style replacement for familiar and arcane school using the current framework.
Thanks for stopping me from making a monumental mistake, folks. =)
Sometimes its better to let the creativity flow, and worry about trimming off the extra later.
So far I like it. I can say right now that I'm cribbing Arcane Bolt. DA2 staff mechanics were awesome.
.... No one in my group, myself included, likes the arcane bonded item rules. ...
I'll be honest. That kinda surprised me. Almost every wizard I've seen played takes the Arcane Bonded Item instead of a familiar because they feel it is such a dang useful boost the wizard got switching to PF. {shrug} I'll agree it isn't as flashy as some of the other abilities a specialist wizard gets, but it is incredibly useful. Any one spell from your book plus a half price magic item? Pretty dang amazing to me.
But whatever. If you guys don't like it, it's perfectly reasonable to change it.
Also, I've never seen a wizard need to carry a crossbow after 2nd level. Many still do, but I've rarely seen it used and it certainly wasn't necessary.
I'm going to address the general idea rather than specifics. I think the concept of what you proposed is fairly reasonable. I would try real hard to keep it away from the same abilities that other classes/archtypes/specializations get. So as others have said; an energy bolt similar to what a specialization already gets or eschew materials that a sorcerer gets, seem like a poor choice.
Also I think there should be more limits. Your replacing a once a day ability with what on some of them sound like at will powers.
An arcane bond focused archetype that replaces arcane school sounds like a great idea to me.
On an unrelated note, what does "peaching" mean?
Please
Examine
And
Criticize
Honestly
PEACH
Welcome, fellow Playground members!
So far I like it. I can say right now that I'm cribbing Arcane Bolt. DA2 staff mechanics were awesome.
I have to agree and it wasn't too difficult to mimic in game terms, either, after I thought about it a bit.
I'll be honest. That kinda surprised me. Almost every wizard I've seen played takes the Arcane Bonded Item instead of a familiar because they feel it is such a dang useful boost the wizard got switching to PF. {shrug} I'll agree it isn't as flashy as some of the other abilities a specialist wizard gets, but it is incredibly useful. Any one spell from your book plus a half price magic item? Pretty dang amazing to me.
But whatever. If you guys don't like it, it's perfectly reasonable to change it.
Also, I've never seen a wizard need to carry a crossbow after 2nd level. Many still do, but I've rarely seen it used and it certainly wasn't necessary.
At our table and in my opinion, familiars are one of the really-easy-to-exploit aspects of wizard's in the game and can impact action economy in some interesting ways. While they were a huge drawback in AD&D, in iterations of 3.x the extra utility you gain as an already powerful class is over-the-top in many cases (again, in my opinion, of course). I'm sure our difference in opinion comes from different GM styles, different players and levels of optimization, and so on. To clarfy: I don't think either of us is misguided in our opinions, just different experiences with the game.
I'm going to address the general idea rather than specifics. I think the concept of what you proposed is fairly reasonable. I would try real hard to keep it away from the same abilities that other classes/archtypes/specializations get. So as others have said; an energy bolt similar to what a specialization already gets or eschew materials that a sorcerer gets, seem like a poor choice.
Also I think there should be more limits. Your replacing a once a day ability with what on some of them sound like at will powers.
Your input is much appreciated, particularly in light of the fact you don't see the change as necessary. Several of the others have mirrored your concerns in one form or fashion, and I'm not one to shy away from good advice or get "married" to a concept. The only thing I'm considering which conflicts with your suggestions is drawing upon the bladebound archetype of the magus; I'm not going to straight up copy it, but I think it's a good place for inspiration. As it stands, I split the features into a straight up revision for our table (first entry) and into an archetype I'm going to try and persue just before I made this post.
All things considered, the energy bolt, as it stands in the "revision" could use a little more work, but I'm pretty happy with it in some respects. It differs in that it scales better than these powers, ultimately, but uses a ranged attack in lieu of a touch attack (which many of them do), respects damage reduction of all types, and now has a "cost" associated with the "normal" use of the the "cast any spell" bit. I'd love your thoughts on the changes.
An arcane bond focused archetype that replaces arcane school sounds like a great idea to me.
On an unrelated note, what does "peaching" mean?
Cieran got to it; it's a term I picked up ages ago from the giantitp.com forums, though I've no clue about the actual origins of the acryonym.
Welcome, fellow Playground members!
I mostly lurk. =)
----------------------------------------------I made a few changes, separating it out into the "standard" revision I'd like to use for a wizard as well as the "archetype" work in progress.
Welcome, fellow Playground members!
I drop in there but rarely. I love OOTS (have every book, cracked the cypher, did the kickstarter, get my friends hooked, get pissed when its been two weeks since an update), but the level of geeking-out fandom on the main forum is just something I can't get down with. Even the heavy posters have to know how ridiculous it gets. I can certainly appreciate searching it for details I missed though. The geeking out here is ridiculous too I supposed, but I can handle it better.
I actually like the idea behind giving arcane casters a weapon that functions like the staffs in DA2, bummer you are developing it solely for wizards though.
Only problem I can see with such an item, in general, is it would kind of kill the purpose of a damaging cantrip such as acid splash or ray of frost since a weapon would pretty much need to do more damage than 1d3 to be at all viable.