A base class for each wizarding school? [Archive] - Wizards Community

A base class for each wizarding school? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
elven warriorXX
12-26-05, 03:28 PM I was thinking that since HoH made a Necromancer class why not make 7 more classes based on the 8 schools? They will just be like a normal wizard (bonus feats, familiar[or staff], scribe scroll) but with some more special abilities based on there school of magic. Yes 2 schools will still be band to them. I was thinking to why not just give them each all there special school Variants (in UA) but without lossing like Bonus feats and Scribe scroll. Should they still gain 1 more spell per level? Tell me what you think and your ideas to make this balanced and playable.

I will post a Link to a SRD of UA so you can see the variants (for those people that don't have UA)
Blaque
12-26-05, 10:41 PM Dread necromancers are actually the second in what seems to be a bunch of arcane classes based on super-focusing in each school. In fact, many of its features show up in its elder sibling, the warmage.

Both have the same hd, can cast in armor (warmages get medium later), and warmages even get the Advanced Learning class feature.

The key difference is the spells they actually get. While dread necromancers are super-necromancers, warmages are super-evokers. Nearly every spell they do is a damaging evocation spell, with some not-evocation damaging spells from conjuration and necromancy, and some divination spells to help them hit things, like true strike and whirling blade.

Like the dread necromancer, it draws on the cleric list too, with things like flamestrike.

So, if we were going to make simaller things for the other classes, some thoughts of what to think of:

- They all have pretty limited spell lists, soemthing like six to nine spells in the earlier area, and maxing out to a handful at the top. They get a school of focus that htey get Advanced Learning for, like evocation for warmages and necromancy for dread necromancers.

- They'll tend to lack things that seem "utility" that just aren't useful in their own primary school or whatnot. Examples of this include how warmages don't get tenser's floating disk, nor how either the current of these classes get identify or detect magic.

- May or may not have cantrips. Warmages do, dread necromancers don't.

- They seem to have low BAB, d6 HD, good Wills, cruddy skills a level, but good skill lists. And cast in light armor. Basically, taking into account that they are going to be ultra-limited compared to wizards or sorcerers, they get perks.

- Boosts to their primary spells. In this case, warmages get the Warmage's Edge, which helps with their damage output, and dread necromancers get Undead Mastery or whatever its called,t hat gives them more HD worth of minions.

- They won't have everything in their school, but stuff form both arcane adn divine. Warmages get flamestrike. Dread necromancers get command undead and turning, ect.

- There is some hole-plugging stuff for 'em about. Warmages don't get any abjuration, so get armor bonuses. They're spontaneous, so theri bonus feats are sudden metamagics. Dread necromancers need to get in melee ot use some of their better stuff, but are frail, so get a weapon choice. Stuff like that.

- They aren't always mono-schooled, going on above. Warmages and dread necromancers do get some neat stuff form other schools, but everything is in theme of the class.

Ummm, those are the keys that come to mind. As for what to make. Well, some ideas to come to my mind:

Summoner - Mostly focuses on Conjuration (summoning) spells then anything else. So won't heal or anything like that, but gets you your monsters, giant animals, and whatnot final fantasy style. Probably also does summoned magical weaponry, things to help stuff hit, and stuff to boost summoned creatures. Probably will have summon nature's ally spells as well. Steps on druids some, but I think its neat. I can see this class having a pretty boss familiar as well.

Chimerstrist - A super-illusionest basically. There's a lot out there. Off the bat, something to deal with folks disbelieving, illusioning non-illusionable stuff, that sort of thing. Needs to probably have a lot of periphery abilities, and probably draw on enchantment, divination, and abjuration for "obstructing" and "observing" things. WIll probably be hard to do, and draw on a lot, but with a "senses changing" theme I think.

Alchemist - This would deal with a lot of transmutation's stuff, as well as some Conjuration (creation) spells, and maybe some Evocation dealing with acid, and all that jazz. I can see some artificer infusions from Eberron making their way here, such as weapon augmentation, and adamantine weapon, but htat's GM approval stuff there. In fact, I often think artificers fill this niche nicely, but with a different route:)

My two cents. Nyarr.
elven warriorXX
12-26-05, 10:59 PM Thanks for the ideas :) But i want the specialized classes more like Wizard. I will make the Dread Necro and the Warmage non-sontanious casters. I think some the the Variants in UA could help as some of the Dread Necro's abilties are a lot like the Variants. I will have to tweak the Warmage too can call it somethen different.
elven warriorXX
12-29-05, 10:27 AM Anyone got anymore ideas?
runestar
12-29-05, 11:22 AM It could theoratically be done - but one must realise that each school is not necessarily strong enough to warrant an entire class to revolve around its theme.
Evocation/direct damage and necromancy/undead have already been covered. Conjuration/summoning could conceivable make for a decent core class, but divination/enchantment/illusion themselves have too many shortcomings on their own. The minor schools of magic might have to be merged into a single class so that each can help build on one another's strengths and shore up their weaknesses. Transmutation might fit into a constructor/artificier spinoff, but abjuration alone cannot do much save as a support caster.

Think 2ed incantatrix. Evocation/conjuration/necro/enchantment as banned schools. Hmm....Do I smell a new offshoot in the making? ;)
elven warriorXX
12-29-05, 12:50 PM Yea a Summoner class, a Transmuter class and maybe a enchantment/illusion class. Also the Warmages new name is Elementalist.
Dark Voivode
12-29-05, 01:15 PM I think the Illusion and Enchantment schools would work rather well together. Of course, I also suspect that the Abjuration school couldn't stand by itself. Maybe combining it with Transmutation or Divination...
elven warriorXX
12-29-05, 01:23 PM Divination is good by its self. Maybe Abjuration+ transmutation? Maybe divination should go with all classes and not have a base class for it. Okay we have down on how the schools will work together now we need to work on special abilites. All the classes will be like the wizard. (i will be making the DN and the WM into prepare there spells).
Quirriff
12-30-05, 09:14 AM I'd love to see Illusionist as a Seperate class again.

But not with those way powered down Silent/Minor/major Image spells, Bring back the Mighty Phantasmal Force spells, those killed!.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
elven warriorXX 12-26-05, 03:28 PM	I was thinking that since HoH made a Necromancer class why not make 7 more classes based on the 8 schools? They will just be like a normal wizard (bonus feats, familiar[or staff], scribe scroll) but with some more special abilities based on there school of magic. Yes 2 schools will still be band to them. I was thinking to why not just give them each all there special school Variants (in UA) but without lossing like Bonus feats and Scribe scroll. Should they still gain 1 more spell per level? Tell me what you think and your ideas to make this balanced and playable. I will post a Link to a SRD of UA so you can see the variants (for those people that don't have UA)
Blaque 12-26-05, 10:41 PM	Dread necromancers are actually the second in what seems to be a bunch of arcane classes based on super-focusing in each school. In fact, many of its features show up in its elder sibling, the warmage. Both have the same hd, can cast in armor (warmages get medium later), and warmages even get the Advanced Learning class feature. The key difference is the spells they actually get. While dread necromancers are super-necromancers, warmages are super-evokers. Nearly every spell they do is a damaging evocation spell, with some not-evocation damaging spells from conjuration and necromancy, and some divination spells to help them hit things, like true strike and whirling blade. Like the dread necromancer, it draws on the cleric list too, with things like flamestrike. So, if we were going to make simaller things for the other classes, some thoughts of what to think of: - They all have pretty limited spell lists, soemthing like six to nine spells in the earlier area, and maxing out to a handful at the top. They get a school of focus that htey get Advanced Learning for, like evocation for warmages and necromancy for dread necromancers. - They'll tend to lack things that seem "utility" that just aren't useful in their own primary school or whatnot. Examples of this include how warmages don't get tenser's floating disk, nor how either the current of these classes get identify or detect magic. - May or may not have cantrips. Warmages do, dread necromancers don't. - They seem to have low BAB, d6 HD, good Wills, cruddy skills a level, but good skill lists. And cast in light armor. Basically, taking into account that they are going to be ultra-limited compared to wizards or sorcerers, they get perks. - Boosts to their primary spells. In this case, warmages get the Warmage's Edge, which helps with their damage output, and dread necromancers get Undead Mastery or whatever its called,t hat gives them more HD worth of minions. - They won't have everything in their school, but stuff form both arcane adn divine. Warmages get flamestrike. Dread necromancers get command undead and turning, ect. - There is some hole-plugging stuff for 'em about. Warmages don't get any abjuration, so get armor bonuses. They're spontaneous, so theri bonus feats are sudden metamagics. Dread necromancers need to get in melee ot use some of their better stuff, but are frail, so get a weapon choice. Stuff like that. - They aren't always mono-schooled, going on above. Warmages and dread necromancers do get some neat stuff form other schools, but everything is in theme of the class. Ummm, those are the keys that come to mind. As for what to make. Well, some ideas to come to my mind: Summoner - Mostly focuses on Conjuration (summoning) spells then anything else. So won't heal or anything like that, but gets you your monsters, giant animals, and whatnot final fantasy style. Probably also does summoned magical weaponry, things to help stuff hit, and stuff to boost summoned creatures. Probably will have summon nature's ally spells as well. Steps on druids some, but I think its neat. I can see this class having a pretty boss familiar as well. Chimerstrist - A super-illusionest basically. There's a lot out there. Off the bat, something to deal with folks disbelieving, illusioning non-illusionable stuff, that sort of thing. Needs to probably have a lot of periphery abilities, and probably draw on enchantment, divination, and abjuration for "obstructing" and "observing" things. WIll probably be hard to do, and draw on a lot, but with a "senses changing" theme I think. Alchemist - This would deal with a lot of transmutation's stuff, as well as some Conjuration (creation) spells, and maybe some Evocation dealing with acid, and all that jazz. I can see some artificer infusions from Eberron making their way here, such as weapon augmentation, and adamantine weapon, but htat's GM approval stuff there. In fact, I often think artificers fill this niche nicely, but with a different route:) My two cents. Nyarr.
elven warriorXX 12-26-05, 10:59 PM	Thanks for the ideas :) But i want the specialized classes more like Wizard. I will make the Dread Necro and the Warmage non-sontanious casters. I think some the the Variants in UA could help as some of the Dread Necro's abilties are a lot like the Variants. I will have to tweak the Warmage too can call it somethen different.
elven warriorXX 12-29-05, 10:27 AM	Anyone got anymore ideas?
runestar 12-29-05, 11:22 AM	It could theoratically be done - but one must realise that each school is not necessarily strong enough to warrant an entire class to revolve around its theme. Evocation/direct damage and necromancy/undead have already been covered. Conjuration/summoning could conceivable make for a decent core class, but divination/enchantment/illusion themselves have too many shortcomings on their own. The minor schools of magic might have to be merged into a single class so that each can help build on one another's strengths and shore up their weaknesses. Transmutation might fit into a constructor/artificier spinoff, but abjuration alone cannot do much save as a support caster. Think 2ed incantatrix. Evocation/conjuration/necro/enchantment as banned schools. Hmm....Do I smell a new offshoot in the making? ;)
elven warriorXX 12-29-05, 12:50 PM	Yea a Summoner class, a Transmuter class and maybe a enchantment/illusion class. Also the Warmages new name is Elementalist.
Dark Voivode 12-29-05, 01:15 PM	I think the Illusion and Enchantment schools would work rather well together. Of course, I also suspect that the Abjuration school couldn't stand by itself. Maybe combining it with Transmutation or Divination...
elven warriorXX 12-29-05, 01:23 PM	Divination is good by its self. Maybe Abjuration+ transmutation? Maybe divination should go with all classes and not have a base class for it. Okay we have down on how the schools will work together now we need to work on special abilites. All the classes will be like the wizard. (i will be making the DN and the WM into prepare there spells).
Quirriff 12-30-05, 09:14 AM	I'd love to see Illusionist as a Seperate class again. But not with those way powered down Silent/Minor/major Image spells, Bring back the Mighty Phantasmal Force spells, those killed!.