Daeinar's page

Well, I think discussing the actual powers is somewhat tedious, as everyone seems to have different opinions on rather special problems. Like surprise rounds, which do not happen very often in the games I know.

But aside from that, I think the current concept behind specialist wizard design has more problems than the actual design itself. In another thread, I said that specialist do not feel really special. But the concept seems to be to make them feel special. It does not seem that they should be able to cast more spells of their specialty (3.5E), or to cast spells which are harder to resist, but to do rather unique things that make them feel different.

Let me give an example. I think the best designed specialist is the Diviner. Why that? Because his powers, although some of them are also spell-like abilites, are completely in line with the concept. And the scrying powers are pretty unique. So that one works quite nicely (if maybe a little too good), I guess.

The Evoker on the other hand is pretty, well, boring. The little difference in damage just is not enough to make the class feel like being the „artillery“. Which is what the class, at least to me, is all about. What’s worse now is that his „specials“ are actually worse than spells cast by another Enchanter with the same Int score.

So while the Diviner works, at least for me, many of the others don't. They are not better at casting, they cannot cast more, and they do not feel special.

I hope you see my point. What would I hope for, from a player’s perspective, If "making feel Specialist special" really IS the design concept for Pathfinder Specialist:

Make it feel special. If you play a specialist, you and only you should be able to do it. If someone else can do it, you should be significantly better. Charisma-based SLAs probably don't help with that.

Give more choices. As it stands now, you chose being a specialist once and there you go. I think it would really help sticking with the class if you had a coice (between two spell-like abilites for example) every now and then. The „Familiar vs. Bonded Object“ choice is a very good example for a hard choice. More of that please.

First of all, this is my first post here, so ...

Let me say that I really like the approach towards the wizard class. I like how one can look forward to getting something new every other level or so. I like the fact that you get enough feats to actually make use of item creation feats. No more: „I just make rings. No staffs, sorry.“ I like the fact that there are some at will powers that make crossbows redundant. Finally. I like cantrips. Mage hand all day long. I even think the different choices are more or less balanced. Enough to make it a hard choice, which is something good I guess.

However, when confronted with actually choosing between nine possibilities, I find myself coming to the same conclusion over and over again: The specialist wizards‘ powers do not feel really „special“. I do not think they are equally strong either, but first and foremost they simply do not really set the different specialists apart from each other. At least not enough to choose over a Universalist.

Let me give an example. I think the best designed specialist is the Diviner. Why that? Because his powers, although some of them are merely spell-like abilites, are completely in line with the concept. And the scrying powers are pretty unique. So that one works quite nicely, I guess.

The Evoker on the other hand is pretty, well, boring. The little difference in damage just is not enough to make the class feel like being the „artillery“. Which is what the class, at least to me, is all about. What’s worse now is that his „specials“ are actually worse than spells cast by another Enchanter with the same Int score. Fireball as a spell-like ability. DC Charisma-based? That one is only useful on a very long adventuring day. Getting Lightning Bolt as a spell-like ability at 6th level. At that point, it’s not special at all. The character has been casting lightning bolt for his whole 5th level now. With a higher save DC. The same holds true for many of the spell-like abilities of the other specialists.

I hope you see my point. What would I hope for, from a player’s perspective:

Make it feel special. If you play a specialist, you and only you should be able to do it. If someone else can do it, you should be significantly better.
Give more choices. As it stands now, you chose being a specialist once and there you go. I think it would really help sticking with the class if you had a coice (between two spell-like abilites for example) every now and then. The „Familiar vs. Bonded Object“ choice is a very good example for a hard choice.
Make advancement more even. The specials are now at levels 1, 8, 20. I think maybe 5 specials spread over 20 levels plus 2 or 3 SLAs might work fine.