Isiah.AT's page

Long life.

Relative to who/what? 6 years is a long life for a guinea pig. With out a specific call out it is simply flavor text.

The balancing issue is the fact that the vancian system is being used. If the Arcanist system was being used, a Sorcerer heightening an unlimited number of spells would be balanced. The Vancian system currently being used does cause analysis paralysis when initially picking sorcerer and bard spells, but day to day for other classes.

Someone did point out that most fantasy uses the Arcanist systems, so new players having been exposed to that might find Vancian off-putting and weird. Arcanist systems are easier to learn and track than Vancian. While Paizo should attempt to correct balance issues, by their own admission they are also trying to make a game we would like to play. With that said, there have been many threads arguing against Vancian and for Arcanist.

It feels more as if Paizo is trying to stick with Vancian so as to not look like they are copying another popular game that uses Arcanist. Granted that game has faild in their magic design in terms of balance and class design. It is also worth pointing out that most systems use the Arcanist systems and the most popular systems are using the Arcanist system.

In general, the vast majority of spells in the playtest are balanced. Powers on the other hand are generally underwhelming and uninteresting, this is particularly for bloodline powers, particularly that of Fey and Angelic. Fey is clearly the worst as spells that do the same thing are strictly better. While Angelic bloodline powers are strictly better than spells cast to do the same thing, they are extremely limited use effects.

With that being said, people want powers that have moderate to common use that scale better than spells that do similar things. Heck some of the powers simply need to scale and that's why no one picks most that don't.

It is also worth pointing out that limited one a day powers seem silly, particularly when other classes get them at a lower level more than 1/day casting, particularly if you have to spend spell points. It is one more thing to track. The one a day seriously needs to go. Quick casting is an easy fix if it costs 2 spell points.

In any case, these are the major issues and they can easily be addressed while maintaining balance.

If the arcanist system was used you can have the sorcerer spontaneously heighten will the Wizard has to memorize spells at the level they want to cast them for the day, with an option to heighten any two spells with a feat to boost to 4. This would level them out more.

While I am on the subject, arcane Evilution should allow you to spend ressonence to invest in a scroll (not just ome). Essentially, this would be like investing in a wand, but you have to use spell slots to cast it. You are also limiting magical item usage the more scrolls you invest in. Though this could have unforseen consequences to be able to get spells from other lists, even if it is just one.

I think it might be even better if they got access to the Universal Wizards Arcane Focus abilities and feats.

Occult Evolution should give Bardic Lore. It feels more in theme with the forbidden knowledge and whispers that aberations (Lovecraft) invoke.

Fey should get Call of The Wild inplace od the current Primal Evolution for the same reasons I said Angelic should have a feat that lets them channel with resonance.

Finally, it is a no brainer to give Demonic a harm channel avility that uses spell points.

Gavmania:

I am also surprised they didn't do some kind of "Short Rest"/Healing Surge style thing. That could have done it as well.

Short Rest healing has its own serious problems. They should never consider implimenting it.

If they changed the Cleric Channel to strictly use 1 spell point like lay on hands, Channel would be fine. It is also more in line with not have x/day powers and magic items, which is the direction they said they were taking the game so it is less stuff to track. Further, paladins get the Channel Life feat at 4th level that uses spell ppints, while Sorcerer gets Divine Evilution, which only lets them channel once and goes back to the x/day thing they said they were getting away from. If anything the issue is inconsistency.

100% agree that more domain powers need to scale better, which can be said about most powers. However giving access to all domain powers up front would be very unbalenced. As far as the magic domain, the way it is written, it seems you can use the concentration action on spells with durations that have no concentration to gain the benefits. This also seems true about similar powers and feats that grant benefits with the concentration action. Hopefully they clarify this soon.

Spontaneous Heightening should apply to all the Sorcerer's spells, and be their stick. Sorcerer's should be ably to heighten any spell they know when they want to, when they want to, so long as they have the spell slots to do it. No fiddling with what level you know a spell or selecting two special spells for the day, you simply need to know the spell. It can cost Spell Points if its felt it would be too powerful, but the ability to spontaneously heighten should be a major draw of the class.

You know fireball and want to cast it at 6th level. Done.

Prepared Casters have various advantages from flexibility, more spells to choose from at the start of the day to customize what they need, and dditional spell slots or slotless casting (Cleric's can can Heal with spell points, etc.). They can prepare for any situation if they have a bit of time and know how.

As a spontaneous caster, you don't have those benefits or luxuries. You're stuck with what you know. However, the compromise should be that you can use what you know in ways other classes simply cant.

Prepared should be flexible preparations. Spontaneous should be flexible casting. Why pick the Spell-Jock? Because they are a true prodigy, and posses a connection to magic that no amount of learning or dedication can emulate.

As a sorcerer I played in 5e said to taunt a warlock he defeated - "Lesser beings like you make pacts with great being like me."

I honestly think you make a really good point. Wizards get the quick preperation feat, which gives them far more flexibility. It is really difficuly to interupt 10 min rest, without unreasonbly singling out and picking on the player with that feat. There is nothing less fun than a GM punishing a player for legal pkay style that is not game breaking.

The point is strong that sorcerer should spontaneously heighten any spell they know. That way the bloodlines stack up better to their traditons spell casting counterpart. This is particularly glaring when stacking divine sorcerer against cleric. No one really accepts decision paralysis as being good reasoning for the way they heighten spells as is.

I don't agree that they should have the same number of class feats as Wizard because they get eshew materials feat for free. It makes sense that they would have this and would be super weird if they didn't. It does however make sense that they should get 2 additiinal class feats from what they have now along with their first level bloodline powers, just as the other casters are done in similae fashion. Further sorcerer should have the option of buying their advanced and greater powers with class feats.

There are two feats that only affect spells with no duration that should affect all spells, such as Wellspring Power and Widen spell.

Despite my previous comments, after doing some more readimg, these tweaks would go a long way to putting sorcerer where it needs to be.

Vancian magic's main point is that spells are fire and forget. It makes no sense. It is also worth ppinting out that just because something is funny or a trope doesn't mean the argument is suspect or wromg. Both are commonly used to make valid points.

One of the biggest issues that I see is that Vanician Magic is largly still being used im this edition. It is a system that was developed in the 1970's as one of the first magic system and is overly complicated and does not make sense. Due to these factors, most groups put alternative versiins in place where a spell only has to be memorized once. Vanician Magic also creates a high barrier to entry for new players and will hit you in your income.

It is simpler to have all the spell casting classes know and/or be able to prepare a certain number of spells.

All classes should be able to heighten current spells available to a higher slot. The spells have been rebalanced in this system and can accomidate this.

It is also good that cantrips are unlimited cast and scale, just as a weapon can be attacked with limitlessly and scales in this system. It would be a balance issue that punishes players for no reason if it wasn't this way.

Degrees of success as is is pretty awesome and lends more variety to outcome.

Here is a funny read that puts how ridiculous Venecianabic is:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VancianMagic