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The ability for someone to quick draw and make ranged attacks with his/her weapon out to 30 ft, and return the weapon as a free action doesn't necessarily sound over-powered, but we have two players in our campaign with the special ability and make significant use of it. In a post game discussion, this concern was raised and acknowledged. Don't know whether the impressiveness of this ability will lessen in levels to come, but for the moment, it seems a tad overpowered.
The ability for someone to quick draw and make ranged attacks with his/her weapon out to 30 ft, and return the weapon as a free action doesn't necessarily sound over-powered, but we have two players in our campaign with the special ability and make significant use of it. In a post game discussion, this concern was raised and acknowledged. Don't know whether the impressiveness of this ability will lessen in levels to come, but for the moment, it seems a tad overpowered.
The experience with my group at first and second level was that this ability is, indeed, quite powerful. However, now at fourth and fifth level, the ability isn't so impressive anymore.
It's already starting to slacken off at third level in one of the games I'm running, and it's only going to get worse later on. It's only slightly stronger than giving the wizard a crossbow as it is, since he gets to use his Int score for attacks and damage.
The ability for someone to quick draw and make ranged attacks with his/her weapon out to 30 ft, and return the weapon as a free action doesn't necessarily sound over-powered, but we have two players in our campaign with the special ability and make significant use of it. In a post game discussion, this concern was raised and acknowledged. Don't know whether the impressiveness of this ability will lessen in levels to come, but for the moment, it seems a tad overpowered.The experience with my group at first and second level was that this ability is, indeed, quite powerful. However, now at fourth and fifth level, the ability isn't so impressive anymore.
Same here, I would suggest that the bonus to hit and damage from casting stat should be set to casting stat, or caster level, which ever is lower.
To be perfectly honest, the only reason why this ability seemed all that impressive at first level is because the wizard had a 20 intelligence, used a scimitar and got a crit three out of his first four attacks. That had a lot of 'wow' factor to it. Once we got past that, even with using the 20 Int as the stat modifier, it overall seemed less impressive.
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Capping the attack at caster level is too much, I think (as I said in the Wizard/Sorceror Design Forum), but I am not so worried about the damage (it seems to me to be more of weapon finesse thing to some extent, where to-hit is affected by the stat bonus). The fact that it has to move from wizard to target leavens its worth, as well, particularly at the levels where the wizard will pretty much always have something they could cast instead.
It's already starting to slacken off at third level in one of the games I'm running, and it's only going to get worse later on. It's only slightly stronger than giving the wizard a crossbow as it is, since he gets to use his Int score for attacks and damage.
Hold up, I'm confused. Wizards get to add Int to their attacks and damage now? When did that happen?
Oi, I'm a bit behind in reading the Beta.
What bothers me isn't so much that this ability is powerful, but that its part of the universal school.
Does anyone else feel that the benefits for being a non-specialized wizard grant more benefits than any specialist?
The bonus gained by not preparing prohibited school spells are often light, too.
IMO, having the ability to automatically enhance your spells with metamagic feats like the universalist can starting at lv 8 is easily the most prominent ability on any of the specialist lists and, it is one of the things a specialist must 'sacrifice' along with 2 schools in order to gain access to an ability such as '+5 armor bonus at lv 20' which can already be almost achieved with an extended mage armor spell at lv 12.
Furthermore, universalist mages benefit from chosing spells from any school as their spell-like ability spells, whereas specialists are limited to their own school which makes specialists look even less attractive.
Essentially, what specialists 'gain' as opposed to universalists is:
1) A list of abilities that seem inferior or at best, up to par with the list of the universalists' abilities.
2) A limitation on their selection of spell-like abilities
3) A free buff available only when spells from prohibited schools are not prepared, that can for some cases be replaced by a spell or two.
My suggestion would be to at least give specialists their extra slot back, and to reduce their prohibited schools to one, making it truly prohibited instead of this 'half assed' prohibitation that currently exists, if you pardon my expression.
In general, I strongly feel specialists should be superior to universalists in some aspects, at the cost of versatility. This does not seem to be the case. Instead, specializing seems to be like willingly gimping your wizard.