That's why you need to look at the other specialist bonus. Conjurer increased AC is really good (I made an elf Ranger/Conjurer and the bonus AC allowed me to be effective at combat without needing armor)
Honestly, I'm having a hard drive figuring out what the point of playing a specialist is at all! The only thing you loose as a universal wizard is the specialist bonus ability, which is pretty ho-hum for most schools. You still get bonus spells you can choose and not be restricted by a specific school. You still get special abilities at 1st, 8th, and 20th (that are pretty balanced with the specialist abilities, or a little better in some cases).
Hand of the Apprentice is better than any melee-touch attack ability, IMO (what squishy wizard wants to get that close to their opponents!!!) and on-par with the ranged touch since you can use it to wield your favorite magical club, dagger, or quarterstaff (since there is no restriction against two-handed weapons in the description). At higher levels, the ranged-touch abilities may be stronger due to the low touch-AC ranges of creatures, but combining magical weapons with the wizard's INT bonus for attack and damage makes a pretty strong ability IMO.
Honestly, I'm having a hard drive figuring out what the point of playing a specialist is at all! The only thing you loose as a universal wizard is the specialist bonus ability, which is pretty ho-hum for most schools. You still get bonus spells you can choose and not be restricted by a specific school. You still get special abilities at 1st, 8th, and 20th (that are pretty balanced with the specialist abilities, or a little better in some cases).
I have to agree with you and Kalyth. It seems as though the Generalist makes out like a bandit and is on par (at the very least) with the specialist.... Yet the specialist should be better than the Generalist in at least some aspects of the game shouldn't he?
I agree that the Universalist's abilities are probably too good, although I like the idea that a generalist wizard gets some class features more interesting than a bonus feat every 5 levels.
My suggestion would be to have the Universalist school be about as powerful as a cleric domain (which gives bonus level 1, 2, 5, 7 & 9 spells, and a special ability at class level 1 and 8).
While some of the specialist 20th level abilities are pretty fierce (Evoker dragging down energy immunity to just resist 20 for instance), the equivalent of 18 feats for the Universalist is pretty extreme (especially when they stack with the feats) - even counting 6-8 of the feats as mostly worthless (spell focus and greater spell focus (Conjuration, Divination, Abjuration)).
I could see these staying halved (w/out a +2 to the specialists). A 20th level Arch-Magi should have a good bit of Ooomph to his spells.
The spells.. when they were set, and from any school, that was balanced with the schools just fine. Now you could perfectly match any other school's spell selections, and be a Universalist Evoker for instance.
Of course - it's not *that* much more flexibility, or rather the specialists aren't that much less. You can almost always find *some* spell in a school at each level (or two of the one lower) that you'd want to have memorized all the time, and just actually memorize any particular spell outside of your school you feel like. Wizards are flexible like that :)
I liked the set spells/spell-like abilities in the alpha's, but don't think the change is too overbalancing.
One obvious change should be that the universalist doesn't get any bonus spells. That would give the specialist a bit more of an edge.
Hehe...
HehehehhahahhahahhahahahhahaHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAahAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
That's funny.
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One obvious change should be that the universalist doesn't get any bonus spells. That would give the specialist a bit more of an edge.
Universalists get bonus spells. They just don't get a specialist bonus ability. The main disadvantge of specialists is a greater limitation on bonus spells in exchange for some nifty specialist abilities.
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My main issue is that an 20th level Invoker should have a higher save DC for his Invocation spells than a 20th level Universalist wizard. With the current system the best the Invoker can hope for is to have just as high and that is only in the case of the Universalist choosing not to take Spell Focus. A Special can NEVER have a higher save DC than a universalist and a universalist can easily have a higher save DC than a specialist in the specialist school of specialty. This is flat out a broken mechanic.Sure a 20th level wizard (specialist or universalist) should have some ooomph to his spells (higher DC) but a specialist should always have the possibility for more ooomph in his specialty than a universalist wizard.
But unlike a universal wizard, an evoker is able reduce energy resistances and immunities, making his evocation spells much more likely to damage high level opponents. He also an addional damage bonus of 5 on all evocation spells.
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Hand of the Apprentice is better than any melee-touch attack ability, IMO (what squishy wizard wants to get that close to their opponents!!!) and on-par with the ranged touch since you can use it to wield your favorite magical club, dagger, or quarterstaff (since there is no restriction against two-handed weapons in the description). At higher levels, the ranged-touch abilities may be stronger due to the low touch-AC ranges of creatures, but combining magical weapons with the wizard's INT bonus for attack and damage makes a pretty strong ability IMO.
Actually, it says that it functions like mage hand with only the changes listed. Since mage hand has a limit of 5 lbs, and the text of Hand of the Apprentice doesn't change this, most normal two-handed weapons would be beyond this (excepting the quarterstaff or mithril weapons, of course). Besides, the text does say specifically "a hand", not two hands. I suppose others may interpret differently, but that also disallows two-handed weapons, IMO.
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I would agree with maybe generalist getting a +1 to the DCs of all spells/schools at 20th if Specialist got a +2 to the DC of spells from there school at 20th. This would seem like a fair trade.
I can see very little advantage to being a specialist over a Universalist at 20th level.
I think I would second this suggestion, and possibly also extend that to the bonus to overcome Spell Resistance. Generalists should get a +2 to caster level to overcome SR for ALL spells; specialists should get a +4 for their school only.
He also an addional damage bonus of 5 on all evocation spells.
I'm sorry. I don't know if I am supposed to laugh at this or not. A +5 bonus to damage at 20th level? That's just not really impressive to me at all....
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Hand of the Apprentice is better than any melee-touch attack ability, IMO (what squishy wizard wants to get that close to their opponents!!!) and on-par with the ranged touch since you can use it to wield your favorite magical club, dagger, or quarterstaff (since there is no restriction against two-handed weapons in the description). At higher levels, the ranged-touch abilities may be stronger due to the low touch-AC ranges of creatures, but combining magical weapons with the wizard's INT bonus for attack and damage makes a pretty strong ability IMO.Actually, it says that it functions like mage hand with only the changes listed. Since mage hand has a limit of 5 lbs, and the text of Hand of the Apprentice doesn't change this, most normal two-handed weapons would be beyond this (excepting the quarterstaff or mithril weapons, of course). Besides, the text does say specifically "a hand", not two hands. I suppose others may interpret differently, but that also disallows two-handed weapons, IMO.
Actually the Beta says that you can weild a double weapon in one hand but you are only able to use it as a single weapon. That means that Hand of the apprentice could use a quarterstaff, just not as a double weapon.
Actually the Beta says that you can weild a double weapon in one hand but you are only able to use it as a single weapon. That means that Hand of the apprentice could use a quarterstaff, just not as a double weapon.
That would be a reference to creatures large enough to wield the weapon in one hand - an Ogre wielding a Medium quarterstaff for instance, or a human wielding a Small Gnome Hooked Hammer.
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Actually the Beta says that you can weild a double weapon in one hand but you are only able to use it as a single weapon. That means that Hand of the apprentice could use a quarterstaff, just not as a double weapon.That would be a reference to creatures large enough to wield the weapon in one hand - an Ogre wielding a Medium quarterstaff for instance, or a human wielding a Small Gnome Hooked Hammer.
Ok, that makes sense. Maybe they should clarify that rule a bit to avoid cornfusion.
This thread made me facepalm, like, five times in rapid succession.
The conjurer's AC bonus is impressive to you? Really? I've got this great spell for you, it's called MAGE ARMOR. Now quit pretending that 2 points of AC at 20th level even matter for wizards, and compare to +2 DCs and +4 spell penetration.
Evokers? Evocation is by far the weakest school of magic, and blasty damage spells make for ineffective wizards. But being a specialist evoker lets you... ignore some energy resistance with spells you probably shouldn't be casting anyway? Get +5 DAMAGE at 20th level? Wow, 5 damage. Yeah, that'll be REAL important. That's totally equivalent to a +10% incrase in your chance of taking a group of enemies out of the fight entirely.
As written, the Universalist is obviously better than the others. Metamagic Mastery alone is ridiculous, since it amounts to, basically, two free Quickens and a free Empower (or any other combo of +10 free levels of metamagic) at level 20, which is a value of 300 to 400 thousand GP if you take it in "big" metamagics like Quicken and Maximize (check the pricing on Metamagic Rods if you don'tbelieve me). And then the capstone ability.
Of course, the bard gets to at stun a creature for 1d4 rounds on a SUCCESSFUL high-DC save and kill them on a failed one, so it looks like the design guys didn't actually bother to care or think about the level 20 capstone abilities. "Just toss something overpowered in, it's level 20, who cares."