I've looked into this, and it seems like there is a ton of great stuff in here, but that it may be an OP archetype. I've played a wizard through Crimson Throne and loved it, and was considering playing a different flavor (Diviner instead of Conjurer).
I love playing powerful characters but I don't want to play anything too OP or broken. Wizards are powerful already. Anyone played it and can speak to game balance? Those who haven't played it but are experienced wizard players are welcome also!
J
It's certainly a strong one, especially at 10 and above.
Early on, the free Fast Study equivalent is basically a quite decent free feat, so that's nice. The Patron things depend a lot on what you pick, but it's an opportunity to grab some non-wizard spells. Though even without that, more flexibility (in the form of spontaneous patron spells, if Effortless Magic wasn't enough) is always nice on a wizard chassis.
5 can be a downside, I'd say. Curses on non-Oracles are sometimes rough. You might get more exotic spells, but they'll come in late enough that it's probably not the best choice.
Harsh curses will hurt you significantly more than an Oracle. Lenient or insignificant ones still won't do much.
Ultimately, it can be one of the strongest wizard archetypes, but if you want to play one and not be OP (I do like the concept), it also gives you all the tools to nerf (or gimp) yourself.
(but yeah, that level 10 power is massive)
You can probably find older discussions about it in the forums, I know it's been discussed before.
You can always sandbag a wizard you're playing. I don't see why a pact wizard would be any different there.
The curse at L5 certainly could be chosen to be harmful or insignificant, but it doesn't have to be.
I love playing powerful characters but I don't want to play anything too OP or broken. Wizards are powerful already. Anyone played it and can speak to game balance? Those who haven't played it but are experienced wizard players are welcome also!
Let's take a look (link to archetype)!
Effortless Magic: Nice, but every Wizard can get that for the cost of an arcane discovery. Since the archetype replaces your bonus feats, this is basically just a forced selection, i.e. a downgrade.
Patron Spells: How good this is depends not only on the patron selected, but also on the group. 296 out of 405, or 73%, of all patron spells are already on the Wizard spells in the first place, and the Wizard list is so strong that most of the non-wizard spells are redundant (it's not like Wind Walk or Tree Stride are overly useful when you already have Teleport). The Healing patron is probably the biggest standout, providing a a bunch of removal spells. Apart from that, don't expect more than two or maybe three spells to be off-list but usefull.
A different way the patron could be useful is via the spontaneous casting feature - the Boundaries patron for instance is full of conditional spells.
Since you lose Scribe Scroll, I'd be hesitant to call this an upgrade.
Great Power, Greater Expense:
5th level: A curse at half progression is not really a benefit, as spells added are too late, and it's usually the higher upgrades that make a curse good. In all likelygood, you'll pick a curse with as little effect as possible.
10th level: This is where the archetype starts to really do something. Roll twice pick the higher is a +3.33 average, when used on saves or SR checks, that's better than a feat, and it's almost a feat when used on initiative or concentration. You have ~10 daily uses when you get it, that should allow using it on most saves and some other stuff. Major upgrade to losing a single bonus feat.
15th level: This is where it's getting truly ridiculous. You'll almost auto-pass any roll you use it on. For instance, at Int 26 (18 starting, 2 pips, +6 headband) it turns the SR check against a CR 17 creature from a 40% chance of success to a 96% chance of success. For an elf wizard (or someone with Spell Penetration), 50% chance becomes 99% chance. The metamagic reduction on patron spells is a pretty minor effect.
As you can see, the power depends greatly on the level. At low levels, it's definitely not a problematic archetype, and might even be a downgrade. At 10-14th level, it's a notable power boost, but should still be suited for most tables. At 15th+ level, it's just plain overpowered.
Effortless Magic: You get the equivalent of a feat for free.
Rating: Amazing trade.
Patron Spells: You get limited spontaneous casting for a bonus feat. You could still pick up scribe scroll as a regular feat. You could even arguably qualify for dragon disciple with this archetype.
Rating: Great trade.
Great Power, Great Expense:
5th: You get a curse for a bonus feat. Curses vary wildly in limit and power. We can mostly assume that someone will pick the "best" options for a wizard.
Rating: Weird trade.
10th: You get a lot of great rerolls for a bonus feat. If it was even just the initiative rolls, it'd be great.
Rating: Amazing trade.
15th: Adding your int bonus to a bunch of rolls that you'll really want to make, with a int-based SAD class?
Rating: Amazing trade.
20th: This one isn't great in my opinion, but it's level 20. Your character is unlikely to use these abilities more than a couple of times anyway. The bonus feat you traded wouldn't have likely mattered either.
Rating: Meh trade.
Overall Rating: It's an obvious upgrade over the base wizard. You don't give up anything that you couldn't replace with normal feats, and you get some amazing and unique things for it.