I have found that all other major spellcasting classes are able to use all their spells in a day but inevitably the wizard is left with a couple of spells which turn out to be useless. My attempt at a solution for this is below:
Studied spell: Wizards get to cast an additional spell per day for each spell level they can cast, excluding their highest level. For example a 5th level wizard gets an additional 0, 1st and 2nd level spell. This spell does not have to be memorised and can be any spell in their current spell book.(If you consider this to be overpowered the alternative is to allow them to leave one spell of each spell level, excluding their highest, unspecified and they can specify it later as long as it is in their book)
Reason:
1-It encourages wizards to have a variety of spells in their spellbook
2-To me wizards are meant to have greater flexibility but less raw power than sorcerers
3- it means if the wizard thinks they might need an esoteric spell they dont have to prepare it 'just in case' hence wasting a slot.
Thoughts, comments?
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I think you could do a variant of this that is less complicated.
Maybe say that a wizard can cast a spell directly from his spellbook, but he must make a caster level check equal to the spell level +10. So a 5th level caster attempting to cast a 3rd level spell would have to roll 2d0+5 and exceed 13.
You'd want to limit this, so wizard's can't cast spells an unlimited number of times per day. You could do this by:
- have the wizard take 1 pt of Intelligence Damage
- have the wizard become fatigued, then exhausted if they do it again.
- have the wizard take 1d6 hp damage x the level of the spell
That is exactly what a wizard bonded to an item does, at least the way I read it. Once per day you can use it to cast any spell known, not memorized.
I do have another question about a bonded item suppose my character bonds with a wand. Later in his career he turns it into a wand of magic missile and eventually he will blow through all 50 charges. At that point can he craft it into a wand of magic missile again, at half cost again? Also the rules state that he can enchant the bonded object as if he had the required feats, am I correct in assuming that he does not need any item creation feats to enchant his bonded item?
Move over ranger, wizard is my favorite class again!!
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I think you could do a variant of this that is less complicated.
Maybe say that a wizard can cast a spell directly from his spellbook, but he must make a caster level check equal to the spell level +10. So a 5th level caster attempting to cast a 3rd level spell would have to roll 2d0+5 and exceed 13.
You'd want to limit this, so wizard's can't cast spells an unlimited number of times per day. You could do this by:
- have the wizard take 1 pt of Intelligence Damage
- have the wizard become fatigued, then exhausted if they do it again.
- have the wizard take 1d6 hp damage x the level of the spell
We did something very similar in our 2nd edition game back in the day (without any penalties)-the only difference was if you read a spell out of your book, the spell/pages was consumed in the casting. You had to find a place to get the spell again to re-input it into the book(our characters were famous for having backup spellbooks). This way, if you really needed that extra spell, you could have it...for a price. In those days, a mage burning a spell was a big deal...because there wasn't many places to get spells, unlike the magic stores found in the game today.
Anyways..just wanted to add my 2 cents.
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I generally dislike fixed spell slot assignments. It turns everyone into artillery pieces rather than fonts of magical ability. Why would a wizard slot a unique spell that just may help the party do something creative when they know combats coming and fireballs are needed.
I think the bonded item is a good start, although a bit limited.
Maybe have it be able to cast 1 spell per spell level a day without slotting, a 5th Wizard can use bonded for a 1st, 2nd and 3rd spell.
and/or
A fort save casting non-slotted spells or fatigued, would simulate the bonus you get for preparing ahead vs the cost of straining to wield magic on the fly as it were.
It would also be nice for something similar for the cleric. They have great spells that either never get slotted, or they all get burnt for healing as soon as the fighting starts. I assume the Turn Undead healing rule was desgned to addres it, im just not sold on liking that idea yet, i like how it works conceptually, but as ive read on the boards before, it makes parties need to make sure foes are downed before healing themselves, having the heroes slaughter all the down monsters seems a bit unheroic
It would be really cool if wizards got 4+int bonus of skills instead of 2+int bonus. Wizards are scholarly and know all kinds of things. At present in the alpha book, druids, barbarians and rangers know more things. That doesn't make sense. Granted, they won't be good at physical skills but book learning ... oh yeah.
And thanks for putting Linguistics as their class skill. That was my other pet peeve. They know all sorts of languages if they study magic.
Most home games I know give wizards that, so let's fix it with PathRPG. Just my two cents.
It would be really cool if wizards got 4+int bonus of skills instead of 2+int bonus. Wizards are scholarly and know all kinds of things. At present in the alpha book, druids, barbarians and rangers know more things. That doesn't make sense. Granted, they won't be good at physical skills but book learning ... oh yeah.
And thanks for putting Linguistics as their class skill. That was my other pet peeve. They know all sorts of languages if they study magic.
Most home games I know give wizards that, so let's fix it with PathRPG. Just my two cents.
Scholarly is represented by their high intelligent scores - which do directly translate into skill points.
man, I've never had spells left at the end of the day, in any time that anyone in my group can remember, when we've been out "adventuring" (as opposed to "towning", where there is no need to cast any spells), with the exception of the time I made a wand of mnemomic enhancer. And I get bonus spells out the butt. (Int 22, without items, at 17th level, add the headband+6 and a sihedron tome, I have Int 34 for preparing spells).
It would be really cool if wizards got 4+int bonus of skills instead of 2+int bonus. Wizards are scholarly and know all kinds of things. At present in the alpha book, druids, barbarians and rangers know more things. That doesn't make sense. Granted, they won't be good at physical skills but book learning ... oh yeah.
And thanks for putting Linguistics as their class skill. That was my other pet peeve. They know all sorts of languages if they study magic.
Most home games I know give wizards that, so let's fix it with PathRPG. Just my two cents.
I agree also... wizards read alot of books, they have to learn alot about a little of everything in their education of "the arts", therefore it is likely that they should be more skillful... this is one thing of the 3.x rules that I believe should definitely be fixed.
My comments to the wizard:
- I like the concept that (in general) sorcerors are artillery and wizards are utlity. So, I'd LOVE to see the ability of the wizard to use more variety out of their spell books. Yes, scribe scroll is an option, but only in a game where the DM gives the characters actual time and money to go scribing scrolls. In the game in which I've taken my wizard Arkady to 16th level, we NEVER get down time to do this. I'd like to see some sort of deal where a wizard can swap out a known spell for a memorized one. Maybe it's a spellcraft check DC 15 plus the spell levelx2 or something along those lines. And, he can only do it with X number spells per day, where X is his Int bonus. And, for any individual spell, he can only do this once.
- I think sorcerers should have more skills or different skills than wizards. I'd change the sorcerer feel to more of a physical character (acrobatics or stealth or theft) and the wizard to more of a academic role.
- I don't like the powers for each school. They're too prescriptive. I REALLY like the concept of getting something new each level. But, the way it's written up in the Alpha, every evoker is going to be blasting little fire rays. What if my evoker is a specialist in light spells. Or cold spells. Or electricity spells. I'd rather that the wizard powers be less prescriptive and more selective. But, then, I just like giving my wizard some flavor by making him specialize in a smaller range of powers than "everything". My 16th level wizard focused on light, fire, and force spells. Maybe instead of defining all of the powers, the 1st level power could be "choose one of the following dozen powers", the 2nd level power could be "pick a first level (evocation or whatever school) spell and you can cast it 1/day per two levels", etc. Some non-spell casting abilities would be cool, too.
- I always though wizards got feats too slowly. Maybe wizards could become the fighter compared to the sorcerer being the ranger/paladin. The wizard gets more feats (every 2 or 3 levels) but the sorcerer gets more "powers" of some sort.
All of this being said, I do have to say that the Pathfinder classes are going to be more powerful than the core 3.5 classes, which will make them outclass the non-core 3.5 classes and many of the prestige classes, too.
Yes, scribe scroll is an option, but only in a game where the DM gives the characters actual time and money to go scribing scrolls. In the game in which I've taken my wizard Arkady to 16th level, we NEVER get down time to do this.
Creation cost: Spell level x caster level x 12.5 gp and spell level x caster level x 1 XP
Creation time: One day per 1000 gp market cost
If you can't take even a single day of down time before you hit 9th level or afford to spend half market price to create your own scrolls, you need to talk to your DM.
I really think the Wizard and Sorceror should have some sort of at will power that does atleast a D6, maybe something like the warlock. I think it really stinks that the wizard has to rely on any weapon other than his own power. A weapon should be an option not a requirement.
Yes, scribe scroll is an option, but only in a game where the DM gives the characters actual time and money to go scribing scrolls. In the game in which I've taken my wizard Arkady to 16th level, we NEVER get down time to do this.Creation cost: Spell level x caster level x 12.5 gp and spell level x caster level x 1 XP
Creation time: One day per 1000 gp market cost
If you can't take even a single day of down time before you hit 9th level or afford to spend half market price to create your own scrolls, you need to talk to your DM.
You don't even need the whole day. Just 8 hours.
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I agree also... wizards read alot of books, they have to learn alot about a little of everything in their education of "the arts", therefore it is likely that they should be more skillful... this is one thing of the 3.x rules that I believe should definitely be fixed.
Agreed. Bumping the wizard's skills to 4 + Int won't hut balance, and would encourage players to take that random Knowledge skill that they'd normally pass up.
What about specialist wizards being to swap out a higher level spell for a lower level spell in their specialty that is in their spell books?
Yeah, the DM pretty much never gave our characters any down time until pretty high level. The adventure started in a haunted little town and took us into the wilderness and it was probably 9th or 10th level before we hit a city and had any downtime at all. At that point, I had to spend every copper piece he had on buying actual spells I was interested in because, yeah, a wizards spell book is INSANELY expensive to create. I found some spells in other caster's spellbooks, but the cost of learning them and then putting them in my own spellbook was NOT insignificant at all.
This is one thing that dramatically reduced my character's power level. The cost of building much of an interesting spell library is freaking huge.
Did you sell those spellbooks (see PHB pg. 179, Selling Spellbooks) after you copied the spells you wanted? You should have been able to defray the majority of the cost or make a net profit.
Personally if they add the ability to swap memorized spells for spells in your spellbook, I believe it should be a Spellcraft check (DC 10+ Spell level), time (at least a minute with maybe a +10DC for emergency full round action) and be limited to your specialty... so an evoker might memorize several utility spells and if after a combat finds himself in need of more evocations can swap out that dispel magic as an example for a fireball but couldn't swap it out for Haste because it's not an evocation... Also (in the case of the full round option) if you fail the check by more than 5 you accidently erase it from your spellbook.
In any event, I feel the wizard as written is fine... just put up the above suggestion for those people who would like another sidebar... and yes I think it belongs in the Sidebar options and not main text.
Spell swapping would be cool. Maybe a overcasting system like in the Wheel of Time RPG would be really cool.
I've always found the Alacritous Cogitation feat worked nicely to give a degree of flexibility.
Given that it's not OGL it might be an idea to give wizards of a certain level this feat as a class ability - the more experienced you get, the more you can keep an open mind for the purposes of recalling a single spell from your book to fill an open spell slot.
Say, one spell can be recalled at 10th level, two at 15th, three at 20th?