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1) Simple weapon prof for wizards (martial weapon prof for Rogues and bards) to fix up archetyping and hoops to jump through for HotA. I’d also make alchemical bombs a simple weapon.
2) Move resolve to 9th or 11th, same for witch and sorcerer.
3) Better focus spells:
- Augment Summoning: Free action or Reaction
- Call of the Grave - One action or add 1d4/1d6 negative damage per level
- Charming words - Idk
- Physical Boost - Range 30ft, Reaction
- Protective Ward - Increase base emanation radius
- Warped Terrain - idk
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Do you mean at 1st level?
Tempest Surge does Clumsy 2 and Persistent Electricity 1 per level of the spell.
At 7th lvl my tempest surge does 7d12 and on a failed save Clumsy 2 for 1 round and 7 persistent electricity.
A 7th lvl Sudden Bolt does 9d12 damage. get sudden bolt in the primal list. So they can do both.
Ah, crap. I was misremembering Sudden Bolt's heighten effect. But comparing them as 2nd level spells, the damage really is double...Tempest Surge is 2d12 at that level while sudden Bolt is 4d12. That just dies off quick rather than staying true.
Of course, actual 7th level spells are, in fact, far exceeding Tempest Surge's damage at that level (both Eclipse Burst and Volcanic Eruption do more damage, and both of those are area effects rather than single target), so I think the point about Spell Slot Spells being better than Focus Spells of the same level stands. I was just misremembering how well Sudden Bolt, specifically, scaled.
Do you mean at 1st level?
Tempest Surge does Clumsy 2 and Persistent Electricity 1 per level of the spell.
At 7th lvl my tempest surge does 7d12 and on a failed save Clumsy 2 for 1 round and 7 persistent electricity.
A 7th lvl Sudden Bolt does 9d12 damage. get sudden bolt in the primal list. So they can do both.
Ah, crap. I was misremembering Sudden Bolt's heighten effect. But comparing them as 2nd level spells, the damage really is double...Tempest Surge is 2d12 at that level while sudden Bolt is 4d12. That just dies off quick rather than staying true.
Of course, actual 7th level spells are, in fact, far exceeding Tempest Surge's damage at that level (both Eclipse Burst and Volcanic Eruption do more damage, and both of those are area effects rather than single target), so I think the point about Spell Slot Spells being better than Focus Spells of the same level stands. I was just misremembering how well Sudden Bolt, specifically, scaled.
Main advantage of tempest surge is it is a great single target effect for a low cost compared to a high level spell slot on a single target. You often can't launch an AoE on a single target and you don't want to blow through your slots trying to land AoE spells on a single target boss as their greatest damage advantage is hitting at least 3 targets. 3+ targets is where they really seem to shine when comparing to martial damage.
The Druid is a very specific case. He pays in spellcasting what he gains in quality of Focus Spells. Without these Focus Spells, there's not much reason to play a Druid at all.
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I would agree with that. Except that until about spell level 7 (maybe 6) Tempest Surge is better than any spell slot of equal level. You could argue that Tempest Surge is a lot better than some of the 9th level spells slots.
So clearly the balancing needs some work for spell slots. Limited use per day abilities really should have an edge over near infinite and infinite use abilities.
I disagree to some degree, and to the degree that this is true, it's basically just because there aren't many single target damage spells available at most levels.
The only change needed is adding some appropriately powerful (read: more damage than on-level area effects) single target spells. If that's done no balance changes are needed whatsoever.
The Druid is a very specific case. He pays in spellcasting what he gains in quality of Focus Spells. Without these Focus Spells, there's not much reason to play a Druid at all.
Also this. Druid Focus Spells are legitimately better than other people's in a very intentional way and using them to talk about Focus Spell power level in general is not the best idea.
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While I do consider Tempest Surge to be a standout focus spell - definitely on par with a 1st level spell or better when you get it (though it's a little hard to compare since damage spells are pretty bad at low levels overall), I think calling it better than spell levels up to 7 seems like a massive stretch to me. It is definitely not more impactful than a high level buff, debuff or AoE spell. Even as early as level 2, I would consider the instant double damage and range of Sudden Bolt to be a superior option (It's an uncommon spell, so it may or may not be relevant to the conversation.) The poor range of Tempest Surge starts hurting more and more pretty quickly as you level.
The Druid is a very specific case. He pays in spellcasting what he gains in quality of Focus Spells. Without these Focus Spells, there's not much reason to play a Druid at all.Also this. Druid Focus Spells are legitimately better than other people's in a very intentional way and using them to talk about Focus Spell power level in general is not the best idea.
This. Druids having Better Focus Spells is a class feature in the same way as Bards having Composition Cantrips is a class feature. They use the same mechanics as Focus Spells and Cantrips, but they're clearly superior to baseline because of their limited availability.
Like it or not, the core design of PF2 is that the relative power and versatility of Focus spells is based on the source of those Focus Spells - and Wizards, apparently by design, were given niche and supplementary focus abilities as opposed to encounter defining ones.
Sortof like how Domain spells appear to have been designed with theme as the primary concern, resulting in a huge variance in usability.
That said, several Wizard Focus spells are kindof flawed. Especially Augment Summoning... I'd like to see those tweaked a bit.
Others though, are well within the established curve for what a focus spell "should" provide as a non-primary class feature - Physical Boost gets a lot of hate for being an essentially free, stacking, 100% reliable critical assist outside of combat for a lot of skill tests. Or a great way to make a Muscle Wizard grappler or tripper work... its extremely niche, but not all Focus Spells are intended to be universally useful by design.
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Most of the wizard focus spells are a pretty easy fix. Augment Summoning should be a free action or reaction. Give Physical Boost a 30 foot range. Give the divination one a longer duration. Call of the Grave should either deal damage or be a saving throw, but probably not both. Charming Words can probably just lose incapacitation and be fine. I honestly think Protective Ward and Hand of the Apprentice are fine as-is, and Force Bolt and Warped Terrain are the only ones I would completely change (and that's probably out of the realm of errata). I don't know what I would replace Warped Terrain with, but I'd probably replace Force Bolt with a metamagic focus spell that changes the damage type of a spell (limited to the four basic elemental ones and physical damage).
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Most of the wizard focus spells are a pretty easy fix. Augment Summoning should be a free action or reaction. Give Physical Boost a 30 foot range. Give the divination one a longer duration. Call of the Grave should either deal damage or be a saving throw, but probably not both. Charming Words can probably just lose incapacitation and be fine. I honestly think Protective Ward and Hand of the Apprentice are fine as-is, and Force Bolt and Warped Terrain are the only ones I would completely change (and that's probably out of the realm of errata). I don't know what I would replace Warped Terrain with, but I'd probably replace Force Bolt with a metamagic focus spell that changes the damage type of a spell (limited to the four basic elemental ones and physical damage).
You make a good point on Charming Words and Diviner's Sight particularly, and I've just added these changes to my House Rules. I'd already done basically this on Augment Summoning and Physical Boost (okay, I also gave Physical Boost a duration, though it still only applies to the first check made within it). For Call of the Grave I just dropped it to one action rather than two. I think that's the simplest fix.
Force Bolt is...good enough. Maybe. For now anyway. And Warped Terrain actually seems like the best Focus Spell of the bunch, Protective Ward aside anyway.
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Am I the only one who likes Warped Terrain?
Personally, having a battlefield control spell that rules out Strides for most creatures to me is a solid spell.
Like it's either an action tax (Seek) to remove it before interacting or they have to Stride since interacting would require moving into the square. That is solid IMO, and a single action to create 5ft Difficult Terrain that costs an action to disbelieve, to me, sounds great.
And that's if it's one enemy it applies to, and the usability goes up if the creature is larger and if the space is more confined.
Like to me, if used properly, you can use this spell effectively tax actions, movement, draw AoOs for your teammates, etc.
Some of the other spells I can see it, but like, Warped Terrain I love as is.
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Am I the only one who likes Warped Terrain?
You are not. Warped Terrain is fantastic Battlefield control for its cost, as anything that tries to "deal" with it is likely wasting an action one way or another (either in extra moves or seeking).
Similarly, I dont understand why people don't love diviner's sight. Its a generic "roll twice" for all intents that can be used on a massive number of non-combat skill checks. Its fantastic.
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I may have underestimated Warped Terrain a bit. And honestly, I don't think Force Bolt is bad per se, I just think it's extremely boring and doesn't really fulfill the evoker fantasy.
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Yeah, I like Warped Terrain. It does something neat and illusionist appropriate.
The problem with both Diviner's Sight and Physical Boost is that they act like an in-combat advantage but work poorly for that specific purpose a lot of the time. They're both pretty decent outside of combat, really. I'm cool with powering them up a bit in terms of in-combat uses, though.
I think Warped Terrain is actually rock solid, same for Force Bolt. Both are really consistent ways to get use out of a 3rd action on key turns, which I value highly as a caster.
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People are vastly underestimating the in and out of combat utility of Diviner's sight.
You spend one action to cast the spell. You roll a D20. If it is a bad roll, you (or an ally) instead take an action that would otherwise be a secret check and get to see the results of that check. The utility of the ability is preserved.
Alternatively you roll well, and you (or the ally) use the roll on an improbable skill/save and do something ridiculous. You get to sit on the die roll and decide what to apply it to over the course of one or even 1 and 2/3rds of a turn so you even have some time to set something up. "Oh look, its an 18, if someone applies a small debuff to that powerful Melee NPC, we could flat out disarm him with one guaranteed check!" Or Grapple/Trip/Fient.
Or it is a terrible roll, I guess I might as well make a recall knowledge check, but see what I rolled.
It is incredibly powerful, incredibly thematic and usable 10 to 20 times a day.
At least that is how I let my player use it.
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I may have underestimated Warped Terrain a bit. And honestly, I don't think Force Bolt is bad per se, I just think it's extremely boring and doesn't really fulfill the evoker fantasy.
I've always been a fan of the Admixture SubSchool abilities. Nothing makes me feel more like an Evoker than the ability to use different energy types on my spells. Would get a HECK of a lot of mileage out of Electric Arc as well, as you could modify it to be of any common damage type instead of just electricity.
Right now they could downscale the spell proficiency to the standard martial progression and add focus items and the math would still hold overall.
Focus items could be staves, instruments, deities favored weapons or weapon with a focus rune.
Would probably be better as an optional rule anyway, but I would definitely try it.
Humbly,
Yawar
Right now they could downscale the spell proficiency to the standard martial progression and add focus items and the math would still hold overall.
Focus items could be staves, instruments, deities favored weapons or weapon with a focus rune.
Would probably be better as an optional rule anyway, but I would definitely try it.
Humbly,
Yawar
I've thought about this, but then the question becomes what do you do about caster multiclass archetypes? Do you make them cap at expert casting?
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I've thought about this, but then the question becomes what do you do about caster multiclass archetypes? Do you make them cap at expert casting?Right now they could downscale the spell proficiency to the standard martial progression and add focus items and the math would still hold overall.
Focus items could be staves, instruments, deities favored weapons or weapon with a focus rune.
Would probably be better as an optional rule anyway, but I would definitely try it.
Humbly,
Yawar
Yes, just like martial archetypes cap at expert too.
People are vastly underestimating the in and out of combat utility of Diviner's sight.
Diviners sight might be almost OK out of all the wizard level 1 focus spells it is probably reasonable.
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So back to answering the premise of the thread: what would I like to see
Item bonus to spell attacks would be nice, just +1 or +2. Probably a few more attack spells so that casters in general have a better chance to attack versus AC when that is appropriate. But this is mostly only for cantrips which are relatively weak so this is not a major balance change.
A few more meta magic feats, including some that change elemental damage type, or increase damage slightly, or allow for selective targeting.
Fix the school spells so they are more generally useful. A few people have had a go at this already as home brew.
None of this is game breaking.
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Just looking at the level 1 Focus spells for wizard:
Augment Summoning: the action cost kills this as you are already sustaining the summons, so you can't cast a regular two action spell if you use this. You are also buffing a creature by +1 whose life expectancy is a round or two, whose AC may be so poor they are being critically hit on 50% of strikes, with a status bonus they might be picking up for free anyway off another common buff.
I rate it at 1/10 - I would never use it even if I had it.
It needs to be a free action, it would be better if it gave them a scaling +1/+2/+3 to attack They are still a long way behind everyong else at this level.
Call of the Grave. Is just too weak to be worth spending 2 actions on.
Rate it at 1/10 - I would never use it even if I had it.
Bump up the failure/success/critical success by an extra point of sickened.
Charming words - single action, only protects just you from one enemy, and effect lasts one round
Rate it 3/10
Bump it the normal failure to include stunned one, then it would be OK.
Diviners sight - one saving throw or skill check one round ahead. Useful
Rate it 5/10
Force Bolt - single action, it works but is a bit weak
Rate it 4/10
Hand of the Apprentice - single action attack at range. Why not use a bow? Range 500ft.
Rate it 3/10 because I can imagine some use. Its just I can do this easier with a bow.
Make this a ranged attack cantrip instead.
Physical Boost - single action status boost to a physcal skill or save.
Rate it 3/10 somewhat useful but hard to predict when you will need it.
Make this have a duration of 1 minute and it becomes a practical buff.
Warped Terrain - all difficult terrain does is slow an enemy down. The area of effect is too small for this to be anything but marginal.
Rate it 1/10
Make this be 20ft burst with a range of 30ft or more.
Protective Ward - an area AC boost. I guess it is sort of OK by why am I this close to the front line.
Rate it 4/10 its a bit action intensive
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So Force Bolt/Diviners Sight/Protective Ward are maybe OK but not interesting or exciting. The others are a waste of space.
That is not a very good strike rate.
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I think you're strongly underestimating Warped Terrain. It's a Burst, so even the one action version is 4 squares. It gets very substantial in size if you invest two or three.
You can also put it right under your enemies which will often stop them from using Step entirely, an invaluable advantage when they're, say, already in melee with your Fighter, especially if the Fighter has a reach weapon.
In short, it's really pretty good.
Yeah, I like Warped Terrain. It does something neat and illusionist appropriate.
The problem with both Diviner's Sight and Physical Boost is that they act like an in-combat advantage but work poorly for that specific purpose a lot of the time. They're both pretty decent outside of combat, really. I'm cool with powering them up a bit in terms of in-combat uses, though.
I liked warped terrain until I saw it affected your allies equally. Similar problem with AoE. Though I can see more good uses for warped terrain tactically. I still don't like spells that can mess up your allies.
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I think you're strongly underestimating Warped Terrain. It's a Burst, so even the one action version is 4 squares. It gets very substantial in size if you invest two or three.
You can also put it right under your enemies which will often stop them from using Step entirely, an invaluable advantage when they're, say, already in melee with your Fighter, especially if the Fighter has a reach weapon.
In short, it's really pretty good.
Denying the ability to step is marginally useful. But what percentage of your enemies need to do that. Its not many. Maybe a caster that you have closed in on.
It is quite situational.
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I think you're strongly underestimating Warped Terrain. It's a Burst, so even the one action version is 4 squares. It gets very substantial in size if you invest two or three.
You can also put it right under your enemies which will often stop them from using Step entirely, an invaluable advantage when they're, say, already in melee with your Fighter, especially if the Fighter has a reach weapon.
In short, it's really pretty good.
Denying the ability to step is marginally useful. But what percentage of your enemies need to do that. Its not many. Maybe a caster that you have closed in on.
It is quite situational.
Agreed and if you don't have a fighter in your party then its kind of meh since stepping is otherwise situational. Sure Barbs and Rgrs can spec into AoO but I see this spell as primarily helping make your fighter shine... if you have one. Its an ok ish spell but super situational.
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I liked warped terrain until I saw it affected your allies equally. Similar problem with AoE. Though I can see more good uses for warped terrain tactically. I still don't like spells that can mess up your allies.
Warped Terrain just makes the terrain difficult, though. It doesn't damage your allies or anything, and you decide where to put it, allowing for you to arrange it somewhere advantageous to your allies and disadvantageous to your enemies. There are a lot of ways to usefully leverage difficult terrain, and they all become vastly better when you can just create it.
Denying the ability to step is marginally useful. But what percentage of your enemies need to do that. Its not many. Maybe a caster that you have closed in on.
It is quite situational.
Denying the ability to step is only one of many uses of difficult terrain, an example I was using rather than the single thing that makes it good. Someone with AoO makes it better, but that sort of combo is common in PF2, and it does fine even without such a person.
Agreed and if you don't have a fighter in your party then its kind of meh since stepping is otherwise situational. Sure Barbs and Rgrs can spec into AoO but I see this spell as primarily helping make your fighter shine... if you have one. Its an ok ish spell but super situational.
Any time you win initiative over melee opponents (and melee opponents are nearly ubiquitous) you can use this spell to probably cost them at least one action each, possibly more, as they must cross the area to get to your party, or go around (often not even an option in, say, a tight corridor or small-ish room). That's not an uncommon circumstance at all.
Alternatively, you can use this to make the action costs of attacking specifically the ranged characters in your party (which, bear in mind, probably includes you) rather prohibitive for the same reason.
And those are just off the top of my head, white room, options In actual play with the actual terrain in front of you? Those options definitely expand.
Now, it's not useful every single fight unless you're taking advantage of the AoO thing, I'll grant, but it's useful the vast majority of them, and a PC with AoO only expands those uses.
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I think a lot of players underestimate the value of action denial, especially when first learning the game, because PF2 does do a good job of mitigating the effects of losing an action, especially against creatures that use 1 action attacks.
I am not arguing that action denial is bad, but just some players won't see the long term value of it, when the action enemies lose (especially at low levels) is usually a second or third attack. But even then, it is important to remember that enemies, especially low level ones, are usually a little more accurate than PCs and thus often have the ability to hit with some regularity on PCs with those attacks.
Illusory Difficult Terrain is fun, because it creates a battlefield feature that can be used to repeatedly deny actions, especially if you combine it with movement denial skills or spells and movement of your own that skips it, like with the jump spell or if your party specs into being good at disbelieving illusions or moving through certain kinds of difficult terrain, since you have control over what it looks like. The fact it can be disbelieved is an advantage to you because it creates a lose/lose decision point for your opposition, quite literally: Lose one action now, to get to make a roll that will free you from the effect, or risk having the illusionist use this feature against you over and over again. Players hate being put into double bind situations and enemy monsters should too.
The biggest problem warped terrain faces is that it is best if you go all in on battlefield control as a caster and that means having to spend spell slot spells to really be able to get the most out of the ability each combat. I see this as a smart design move, because the focus spells of the wizard are supposed to set up or work around casting spells from your spell slots, not replace the need to cast a spell from a spell slot. However, tangle foot as a cantrip gets overlooked by a lot of players. Using warped Terrain, tangle foot and a flexible movement speed of 30 or 35 as a caster (either by spell or feat), can cause a monster endless frustration. I hate that tangle foot is a spell attack roll spell, but by the time you can cast level 3 or higher spells, hitting a powerful boss monster with a tanglefoot, and with careful movement and warped terrain, you have round after round of forcing the boss to spend actions to make rolls or lose more actions in the future.
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How many actions does it take to "undo" a Summon?
Last time I saw one, the answer to your question was "one." (And it takes 3 to cast and inflicts Slowed on the caster via Sustain a Spell).
Remember that as a 3rd level spell (you're a 5th level caster) you get to summon a level 2 creature.
I only vaguely recall the fight now, but it was during the playtest and it was the fight with the manticore, so someone will have to tell me what level the PCs were, but one of my party members summoned an air elemental (because flying) and it couldn't hit the manticore and the manticore desummoned it in a single attack.
Slow as a 3rd level spell has a possibility of siphoning 10 actions, and at a 6th level spell can target 10 creatures. A 6th level summon (you're level 11) can summon a single level 7 creature.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Slow is hands down far and away better in every situation.
Well, I have done a variety of things to help Wizards (as well as other classes).Unfortunately there are too many people here who are blind to the low-level caster problem.
Paizo can easily choose to listen only to them and conclude "low-level Wizards are just fine".
Have you actually read this thread? This thread is over a hundred posts talking about the problems wizards face at low levels (particularly levels 1-4), including people who have talked about how they enjoy wizards/casters on this forum before. There's some disagreement about the severity of the problem (varying from "I think this is a problem but not a big enough one to hamper my fun" to "This prevents me from enjoying casters/wizards" but I have never seen such nearly unanimous agreement on this forum that there's a problem.
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I think many issues casters have are pretty clear:
- Level 1-2 spells are weak. Wizards and Sorcerers, because of their lack of features outside their spells, suffer the most from that.
- Cantrips are not equal and Electric Arc, despite being the best cantrip, is actually the only one that seems balanced.
- Summons are weak. 5 levels of difference is too much.
- Wizard, Sorcerer and Witch (and Alchemist) lack feats. They nearly have half the feats of other classes. With more feats, there will be more interesting feats (obviously).
- Focus spells are not all equal and some are really weak/niche. It's especially annoying for Sorcerers and Wizards who can't, unlike Clerics, choose between a few Focus Spells.
- Spell Attack Rolls lack item bonus to attack (well, you can have one through Quicksilver Mutagen, but it's very special).
In my opinion, most of these problems are bugs and should be fixed in an errata, without the need to release new content.
Sometimes I really wish my ttrpg had the feedback loops of a crpg. For instance - as soon as Blizzard detects that an ability in WoW isn't used as much as expected, they issue a patch to fix that.
In comparison, it is not inconceivable that Paizo will NEVER fix the egregious situations w.r.t cantrips for instance, or that they will "back port" the issue by new cantrips.
Up to a certain point, they have a general idea which options are overused and underused, because they know which are picked for PFS and which aren't and, arguably more important, which are retrained out.
However, they lack in-depth play reports to detect details. For example, Acid Splash is not the best attack cantrip, but it still does a different type of damage at range, blocks some regenerations and is good against swarms so most people would pick it as back up and not really use it. You can't assess that just by looking at a character sheet.
Even with small surveys they wouldn't have access to in-depth playstyle information. For example, if people retrain out of Swashbuckler to Fighter citing "I don't contribute enough in terms of damage" Paizo wouldn't know if it is because precision damage is too restrictive, not enough precision damage or a curveball, gaining panache might to hard.
Humbly,
Yawar
I want to propose my very rough idea I thought of in a different thread I made and get some feedback on where to go with this and I think instead of making a topic it would be better to out it in a thread that has to do with this topic of improving wizards so here it is:
I haven't finalized my idea yet because it requires other aspects of the wizard are on par, but the idea is that either the arcane thesis or the school can be replaced by a wizard who uses their arcane knowledge in conjunction with other traditions and adds a few spells into their repertiore from a singular other tradition and can use their arcane attack and DC for the spells. Having a capstone feat that makes it so a multiclass with a caster of that tradition you chose at level 1 uses your arcane DC and attack rolls instead. It would be a kind of multiclass enabling feat tree. Been deliberating the details and as it sits it's better than everything else, but I don't think that makes this too powerful, but instead reveals how not super impactful the other choices you have are.
My general idea (which is a super rough draft) is adding it as an arcane school and having four options that work something like this:
There are four options when you choose this school(or thesis depending on what makes more sense), arcanist, mystic Theurge, metaphysicists and "hedge wizard"(my least favorite name)
-Arcanist: you get the sorcerer dedication feat but you cannot gain additional spell slots from the sorcerer class archetype and dedication feats. You must choose a bloodline that grants the arcane spell list and you gain no weapon, armor or skill proficiencies from the class. Instead you get arcanist style preparations(5e style). I'm thinking level+int modifier. Then a feat tree that adds more arcanist like stuff and bloodline powers or something
Mystic Theurge: you get the cleric dedication feat, you do get the additional spell slots but none of the weapon, armor or skill proficiencies. You can only choose a god with one of the three domains, knowledge, magic or glyph. The feat tree allows you to add a single spell of each level to your repertiore that acts as an arcane spell, with a feat of level 16, 18 or 20 making the spells you get through this dedication line work as arcane spells like I mentioned before
Metaphysician: Same as Mystic Theurge but occult witch only.
Hedge Wizard: same as mystic Theurge and metaphysician but druid and potentially no beast or wild druid, only leaf or storm
Now the intent is that a wizard being studious can learn to utilize the spells of another tradition and incorporate it into arcane casting. The removal of proficiencies is to instead of making it like a true multiclass, it's a different flavor of wizard. You still have to spend feats to get the class features and additional slots you normally would have if you multiclass at the same level progression. So that is not a huge power spike.
In order for the arcane schools to compete I think what would need to be added is more abilities and bonuses from those schools. I have an example of an idea for the evoker that puts these as just as valuable. For example the evoker at level 1(or two) gets the ability to make AoE damage spells only hit enemies and avoid allies, like spell shape in 5e and the metamagic feat in Pathfinder 1e. At level 6 or so an evoker can change the element of a spell and around 10 or later they get the ability to as a free action use the overwhelming energy metamagic feat
Please keep in mind this is a first draft I came up with this morning. Tinkering will be necessary
I want to mention one balancing factor here is losing the additional school spell slots and the better bonded recovery ability universalists get. Which might actually make is kind of weak overall, but I think it thematically fits a certain image of the wizard and lets you make a wizard like radagast, or Gandalf with the divine and primal, or a wizard in a sort of classic sense of someone learning esoteric theological knowledge like real world occultists. Or doubling down on arcane as it is by building the arcanist into the wizard. Which I'm afraid some people will not be happy about but you miss every shot you don't take. I would refine the idea more before posting, but I might not be able to for some weeks. So this is the direction I would like to take the wizard personally so I think it fits the thread theme. Thanks in advance
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- Summons are weak. 5 levels of difference is too much.
I definitely disagree with this, but I do agree that the average case summon is very weak. It seems to be balanced around the best case, so anything short of that feels terrible.
A templated summon similar to battleforms and starfinder would be much easier to balance and could lead to effective summoning without having to dig through the bestiaries.
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As I noted previously, if you're already adding an Item to help with Spell Attacks, having it also add to summoned creature's attacks does a lot to fix the issues with summoned creatures, and is a very easy fix to implement.
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- Summons are weak. 5 levels of difference is too much.
I definitely disagree with this, but I do agree that the average case summon is very weak. It seems to be balanced around the best case, so anything short of that feels terrible.
A templated summon similar to battleforms and starfinder would be much easier to balance and could lead to effective summoning without having to dig through the bestiaries.
I think it's an easy solution: provide both abilities. Leave summons as is, and add "Summon Brawler" which provides a templated summon with better fixed stats.
People who want flexibility get their bestiaries, people who are just interested in summons fighting for them use the templated summon.
ways to boost summoned creature's accuracy and or action economy would be good for items or class feats if it was going to be a way to make conjurers be able to have a summoning specialization.
- Summons are weak. 5 levels of difference is too much.
I definitely disagree with this, but I do agree that the average case summon is very weak. It seems to be balanced around the best case, so anything short of that feels terrible.
A templated summon similar to battleforms and starfinder would be much easier to balance and could lead to effective summoning without having to dig through the bestiaries.
I think it's an easy solution: provide both abilities. Leave summons as is, and add "Summon Brawler" which provides a templated summon with better fixed stats.
People who want flexibility get their bestiaries, people who are just interested in summons fighting for them use the templated summon.
I like this. Can be tied to essences so that the same spell can be used for all 4 traditions, but each tradition has access to different templates.
Edit: Or make it a Conjurer/Summoner exclusive focus spell. That would work too. Summoners get their templates decided by their tradition, but conjurers can use them all because they are just That Cool.
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If we're making a list I would have to say that Eschew Materials needs some ACTUAL benefit for selecting it beyond the inconsequential benefit of saving you a few Silver at Character Creation.
Even if it comes in the form of a number of Class Feats in a "Chain" that futher expand on the functionality of using the "Runes drawn in the air" in new and interesting ways. As it stands it is literally just a waste of space in the book.
If we're making a list I would have to say that Eschew Materials needs some ACTUAL benefit for selecting it beyond the inconsequential benefit of saving you a few Silver at Character Creation.
Even if it comes in the form of a number of Class Feats in a "Chain" that futher expand on the functionality of using the "Runes drawn in the air" in new and interesting ways. As it stands it is literally just a waste of space in the book.
Presumably it lets you cast without needing a hand free to grab materials from the component pouch. So it would open up options that have your hands full like a two handed weapon, a shield and a weapon, two weapons. Though it really seems like this still isn't terribly useful for most wizards. Useful for MCD though
It would be neat if Wizards had more focus spells or the opportunity to dip into another school to pick up another spell like how clerics can dip into multiple domains (or an option to have an alternative universalist focus spell that ISNT hand of the apprentice to open up the further options for wizard feats). I just feel like other casters have so many cooler focus spell options, and while I don't think wizard needs to outdo them by any means It would be cool to have more options since having more options is sort of the wizards thing even if the spells aren't crazy powerful
other stuff I feel like might be nitpicking but It would be nice to see more feats for specialization or ways to get additional support for casters in general like weapon runes for spellcasters or ways to increase a spell DC or attack roll by a slight bit, a general feat that grants some cantrips or something spellcaster related, nothing crazy, but It would be cool to see more customization options across the board
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Presumably it lets you cast without needing a hand free to grab materials from the component pouch. So it would open up options that have your hands full like a two handed weapon, a shield and a weapon, two weapons. Though it really seems like this still isn't terribly useful for most wizards. Useful for MCD though
Your not wrong, but feel free to peruse the book and count how many (non-ritual) spells actually use a material component.
Its like six.
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Presumably it lets you cast without needing a hand free to grab materials from the component pouch.
Nope, sadly that's not the case you still need a totally free hand. :(
Eschew Materials
Feat 1
Wizard
Source: Core Rulebook pg. 209 1.1You can use clever workarounds to replicate the arcane essence of certain materials. When Casting a Spell that requires material components, you can provide these material components without a spell component pouch by drawing intricate replacement sigils in the air. Unlike when providing somatic components, you still must have a hand completely free. This doesn’t remove the need for any materials listed in the spell’s cost entry.
It doesn't remove the Manipulate Trait, the need for a free hand, or really do anything other than save you a few Silver and cast like... 10 Spells total after you've been captured, stripped naked, and tossed in a prision cell. That said it still doesn't really DO much to really help with that because you'd still be missing your Spellbook and you'd end up getting as many opportunites to use those few Spells as you had prepared the day before you were captured.
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Presumably it lets you cast without needing a hand free to grab materials from the component pouch. So it would open up options that have your hands full like a two handed weapon, a shield and a weapon, two weapons. Though it really seems like this still isn't terribly useful for most wizards. Useful for MCD thoughYour not wrong, but feel free to peruse the book and count how many (non-ritual) spells actually use a material component.
Its like six.
Legit? Hold up checking now
**Edit**Just checked a the non-focus spells in the core rulebook, 92 require material components. Most are arcane, notably all the prismatic and chromatic spells as well as every summoning spell and a lot of the best arcane and occult spells. So actually it's a lot