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Or maybe it doesn’t have that text on purpose.
Yeah, those are good points, thanks all. I do agree it’s not actually broken, but it does seem a little unsatisfying. The math evens out at the end of the progression curve, but for most of the levels in between the to-hits of casters are going to be lagging behind a little. Again, not broken, it’s just a bit messy in terms of design. True Strike is indeed potent. It’s a level 1 spell so it feels a pretty wasteful to use it to make a cantrip land, but I’d never want to cast a big spell attack without it. It’s nice to have those level 1 spell slots still so relevant at high levels, but it makes a spell almost a need-to-have, which is kind of strange. Anyway, thanks for the perspective. I guess I find this state of affairs playable but a little disappointing.
Yeesh. That’s not great. Unless there’s some mitigating factor that eludes me, you’re best off avoiding spells with the Attack trait in favor of spells that allow saving throws.
In the playtest there was something like a Dueling Wand/Rod for this. There doesn’t seem to be anything like that. Hmmmm.
Is there something in the game that provides casters with bonuses to their spell attacks, in the way that weapon potency runes add to weapon attacks? I’m not seeing anything. If not, it looks like spells that require to-hit rolls just end up being less likely to land than spells that require saving throws, and I don’t see an obvious balance reason why that should be the case. What am I missing? I’m just figuring this system out and I didn’t follow the playtest, so I’m probably just failing to account for something.
Please cancel all of my subscriptions.
Hello, I have been getting transaction declined notices about this order for months now. There is nothing wrong with my card, it works everywhere else. My bank assures me that there is no problem. I even changed my shipping address in your system to match the credit card's billing address, on the off chance that this would appease your new and very demanding system. There is apparently nothing that I can do to make your system accept my card. I created another customer service thread about this a month or so back, and was told that I had to make sure that the address on file matched the one on my credit card statement, as the new billing system is very particular. I have checked this multiple times. Everything is fine with the address. Please advise if you can fix this on your end. If not, please cancel all of my subscriptions, as your system won't allow me to pay for them. Steve Shearer
Hello, I received several "this transaction was declined" emails from you about this order, and I just called my bank to see what the trouble is. They tell me that the transaction was approved yesterday, December 26th (I don't know why it had been declined before that, but never mind). Can you please confirm or deny that the charge for this order went through yesterday? Thanks very much.
Hello, I must reluctantly ask you to cancel all of my subscriptions (Roleplaying Game, Adventure Path, Campaign Setting) immediately. I look forward to subscribing again in the future, but I cannot afford to do so just now. Thank you! Please reference order numbers 1672308, 1688690. I unfortunately cannot find the order number for the Adventure Path subscription.
A wizard does have to get his hands on magical writings of some sort. That means either buying (and destroying) a scroll, borrowing/looting a spellbook, or the spells he gets naturally each level. The thing is that the cost of the source isn't calculated into the value of the spellbook. If you try to sell your spellbook, you get the value as per the Core, no more. Hmmm...then what is the importance of the gp cost listed for each spellbook? If you are correct, then the listing of the gp value of the spellbook has utility only if you assemble a book exactly like the one listed and then sell it. I don't think that is what they are on about, there.
Ummm...wow. Wizards are more powerful than I realized. I had been laboring under the assumption that they needed to buy scrolls for the spells that they wanted to add to their books aside from the free ones that they get when they level up. The cost to get the bulk of the spells available to them is really a pittance. My wizard PC is most pleased!
Greetings! Reading my brand new copy of Ultimate Magic, I find myself wondering how the value of the sample spellbooks was determined. In the cases that I have looked at, the listed value of the spellbooks is FAR below the total cost of scrolls of all of the included spells. Can anybody assist with this? Is it a matter for errata?
Also, if you are concerned about Arcane vs. Divine AOE, check out the square footage on Meteor Swarm. Even if you stack all four meteors on the same area (give all four the same origin point), a level 17 Wizard covers the same square footage with MS as does a level 20 Cleric with FS. True, MS is not shapeable, but if army decimation is your goal you can always spread the meteors out and cover four times the area! Against rank and file soldiers, 6D6 damage is probably plenty. (And if you are content to merely match the square footage at level 20, you are doing a very nice 24D6/save half to most creatures in the area, with the unlucky bastard in the center taking a lot more) This is not to say that the shapeable nature of FS does not bring a big advantage, but Arcanists do quite well with their own big boom spell.
Ummm, no. I already specifically addressed that point in my post, if you'd care to read it.
Yeah, definitely. That being the case, it should be reasonable enough to keep the Oracle to divine magic, then, and buff it in special abilities relative to Clerics (it seems that this is where they are going with it already, at least in terms of special abilities). I am just saying that you don't need to do that by making it a sorcerer, plus more stuff besides. I'd quibble with what you said to the extent that the Oracle actually needs to be balanced against BOTH Clerics and Sorcerers. As primary divine magicians, they will be competing with Clerics in terms of that particular kind of niche definition. I agree. But as spontaneous spellcasters, they will be competing with Sorcerers for that niche as well. They need to be balanced along both axes. If the result of balancing the class against the Cleric makes the Sorcerer class look less attractive, then you have solved one problem by causing another.
For starters, fireball is one of the least effective arcane spells, so my thoughts begin there. Apparently they end there too. Anybody else?
Continuing this parallel conversation about the Oracle's power level, I suppose the thing that worries me about it is the access to some of the arcane spells. Apparently, the theory is that the Oracle can have higher HP, BAB, armor, etc (in comparison to the Sorcerer) because the arcane spell list is more powerful than the divine one. I am not entirely sold on that idea (that arcane is more powerful than divine in general) but for the sake of argument let us suppose that it is true. Now, to take another case of divine classes using arcane magic, let's look at the Cleric. The Cleric has access to some arcane spells through domains, but they have only one spell slot per level through which to use these spells. That is, it isn't terribly unbalancing to give a fire-domain Cleric access to Fireball (for instance) because he can only ever cast it once per day. However, giving Oracles access to Fireball is uglier. As spontaneous spellcasters, they will be able to spam the same spells over and over again if they want to. An Oracle with access to Fireball is stepping on Sorcerer toes much more than a Cleric is intruding on the Wizard's domain because each arcane spell said Oracle can access is an arcane spell he can use all day long. So, restricting opurselves to issues of fire-spell access (because that is all we have to go on) a Fire aspect Oracle looks a heck of a lot better than a fire-blasting sorcerer. Both of them can blast offensive fire magic many times per day, but the oracle enjoys a better statline, better BAB and better HP. Assuming that the special abilities are otherwise roughly balanced between the two classes, Oracle sure looks like "Sorcerer-plus". As the Sorcerer is already released, substantially buffing him is not really an option. Probably a better solution is to keep the Oracle out of the arcane magic game entirely. For instance, you could give him Continual Flame as his 3rd level bonus spell instead of Fireball. Sure, its not nearly as sexy a combat option as Fireball is, but then, with the Oracle's superior statline, hit points and armor options, that's the only way to keep things balanced. Just keep the Oracle to the Cleric spell list entirely, and it should be more or less OK otherwise. Thoughts?
I am certainly reserving judgment until the final class is released, but my initial impression of the Oracle is that it is hard to justify how this is balanced with the sorcerer class. It looks like is has a divine version of sorcerer spell progression, with higher HP dice size, access to armor and also limited access to arcane spells based on aspect. It also has a suite of special abilities, but as we know little of those just now, let us assume that they are roughly balanced with the sorcerer bloodline powers. So, it appears that you have a sorcerer-type class with various bonuses on top of the sorcerer baseline. I don't think this tiny little "curse" mechanic could be the balancing mechansism. I hope I am missing something. I know I don't have all of the relevant info, so I mean this in the spirit of inquiry rather than of snark: How is this class not just a "sorcerer-plus"? |
