Wizard Class, p.15-19

[Doug Bragg 172]

As it stands currently, the specialists do not gain any bonus to being a specialist other than the powers given for everyone (including generalists). Thus, as it stands, there is no reason to play a specialist.

Changes I would make: 1) Make the prohibited schools for specialists really prohibited. Losing resistance 5 v. an element to be an abjurer may not be all that great compared to casting 7th level spells of a prohibited class - and thus, not a deterrant.

2) Give the specialists something to justify the the sacrifice and the title "specialist". I liked the extra spell / day, but a bonus to CL wouldn't be a bad option either.

As for the scaling of abilities... I was thinking of the level 1 power of generalists, not the bonus ability. The Hand of the Apprentice improves with BAB and Int., where the abjurer's resistance to 1 energy type improves once, about halfway up. The bonus metamagic feat may not "scale" but it can be more valuable as you level up.

[Mystic "X"]

Doug Bragg 172 wrote:

As it stands currently, the specialists do not gain any bonus to being a specialist other than the powers given for everyone (including generalists). Thus, as it stands, there is no reason to play a specialist.

Changes I would make: 1) Make the prohibited schools for specialists really prohibited. Losing resistance 5 v. an element to be an abjurer may not be all that great compared to casting 7th level spells of a prohibited class - and thus, not a deterrant.

2) Give the specialists something to justify the the sacrifice and the title "specialist". I liked the extra spell / day, but a bonus to CL wouldn't be a bad option either.

As for the scaling of abilities... I was thinking of the level 1 power of generalists, not the bonus ability. The Hand of the Apprentice improves with BAB and Int., where the abjurer's resistance to 1 energy type improves once, about halfway up. The bonus metamagic feat may not "scale" but it can be more valuable as you level up.

I agree with both changes. The idea behind specialization was that a wizard studies so hard to master a particular area of magic that other areas were sorely neglected, which is best reflected by outright prohibiting the neglected schools (which can be fixed by feats I've seen in at least 1 WotC source) to get extra spells, and extra power with those spells (it really should be both).

I see what you mean about the abjurer's resistance. I imagine they're trying to scale it like some of the other specialist abilities. One wonders how well energy resistance scales to skill bonuses, armor class, and spell damage (is energy resistance 10 of equal value to a +3 AC bonus), but perhaps it would be better to have the resistance equal to the caster level?

[Doug Bragg 172]

Looking at the scaling of the other schools... abjurers get the short end of the stick. Most improve every 5 caster levels... the abjurer gets a 1 time improvement at level 11.

I'd think a more appropriate ability would be a +1 bonus to dispel checks / 5 caster levels (since Abjurers seem to be about manipulating magic and shutting down other magic users). It might also be nice to see a "counterspell as an immediate action" type ability for them as well.

[Bryan Bagnas]

Wizards are bookish and knowledgeable, they should have 4 skill points per level just like their knowledgeable druid friends. That's the thing that really bothered me about 3.x wizards.

The other was speak language is a cross class skill. Fixed in the alpha. yeah.

[CyricPL]

Mystic 'X' wrote:

As has been mentioned a few times, the benefit gained in being a specialist should be an improvement in the specialist's abilities with spells in his craft; i.e., extra spells of the specialized school and an increase in caster level or DC (preferably caster level, especially if the DC formula is modified to include caster level as a variable).

While I do think that specialists should get an improvement in caster level, since I am a big fan of save DC being based on caster level as opposed to spell level, I'm actually against bringing back the extra spells per day. That's why I said that I think universalists should have the "weakest" chain of abilities, because I really like the current idea that the school abilities are what really defines a specialist. I agree that the game should be all about balance, hence the characters with unrestricted spell selection get a less potent chain of special abilities.

That said, I also believe that the current restricted school model for specialists should be changed to an out and out prohibition on two schools. I think that is easier to consider when trying to balance casters.

[Mystic "X"]

I'd like to suggest the following changes to the specialists' (and the generalist's) spell-like abilities, to prevent cookie-cutter-ism:
At each level that a wizard would gain a spell-like ability, he may select one spell from his school (that he has the ability to cast). The wizard gains the ability to memorize this spell without a spellbook (as the Spell Mastery feat) and may cast it spontaneously once per day (XP costs and expensive spell components are still required). When selecting the spell, the specialist may select a metamagic feat that applies to the daily casting of the spell, reducing the cost of the metamagic feat by one level.
A generalist wizard may select a spell from any school (of a level he is able to cast), but does not apply metamagic to the daily casting.

So, as examples, an evoker at 6th level could select a Fireball (alone or with Still Spell), an Empowered Scorching Ray, or a Maximized Magic Missile. He gains the ability to cast the enhanced spell once per day, and the ability to memorize the selected spell without a spellbook (and without metamagic, unless he has metamagic feats and spends the normal slot cost to use them.
I think that such a method helps remove the cookie-cutter-ism inherent in the current ability processes, and provides a balanced approach to flexibility vs. specilization power. It also eliminates the problems inherent in providing Wish and Limited Wish without costs, by retaining the costs, and reduces the length of the specialist powers" section, allowing Jason and company a couple extra pages to fill with something special.
(Of course, I'd still prefer if the spell-like abilities were replaced with special abilities like at levels 1, 8 and 20...but that's just me.)

[Pneumonica]

I would, at this time, like to reiterate my desire for read magic, as a spell, to die a grisly and horrible death. Spells should be readable by anybody who can read the language and cast the spell, no other spell required. Read magic is a terrible spell and has no reason to exist - let somebody who has a spellbook read the spellbook, whomever wrote it. Part of the advantage of the wizard is being able to tack on new spells - part of the weakness is needing those damn books in the first place. If my book gets torched, but I can pick up the book of the dude who torched it, I should just be able to read it (unless it's written in a language I don't understand).

If you want to get tricky, you could take a language of "magical cypher" so that anybody who wants to read your spellbook has to decipher it using a Linguistics check. Once it's deciphered, you can then take as a language "that dude's magical cypher" and be able to read it freely.

In other news, I would also like to say that the limited wish and wish powers are still sick and wrong. Removing the innate ability of the Universalist actually is a good move - they simply don't have a specialist ability to lose. However, letting them cast wish once per day for free is beyond too much.

However, I can see an easy fix - re-write spell-like abilities so that XP costs still have to be paid for them. If that's the case, the wish and limited wish powers are within bounds.