Post/Author/DateTime	Post
gregm 04-04-05, 09:29 AM	Are any of them good another to give up 2 schools of magic for???
PsionicRanger 04-04-05, 10:52 AM	I think the specialist conjuerer presented in UA is great and so is the necromancer
gregm 04-04-05, 12:30 PM	Why?
VampricNecromancer 04-04-05, 03:14 PM	Conjurer Variant gives you improved Summon Monster spells(better Str/Con, harder to dispell), and/or Augment Summoning instead of Scribe Scroll, and/or the ability to spontainiously convert magic to Summon Monster spells. IMO-WORTH IT Necromancer Variant gives you a Improved Skeliton companion instead of a Familiar, and/or lesser Undead Qualitys, and/or improved Undead animated through spells IMO-NOT WORTH IT All these bonuses come at a cost however- they loose bonus feats, Familiar Acess and Bonus spells from specialisation, depending on what alternate abilitys
Grigori 04-04-05, 04:24 PM	It all depends on what your definition of 'worth it' is... Are you asking if they are better than the regular specialists? To me, several of the variants are interesting, some are clearly better than others, but no single one shines out at the moment. It all depends on the type of wizard you want to play. The variants are definitly different and stand out in that there is a marked difference between a 'core' specialist and the variants, but *shrug* it's up to you and your DM.
Dave Stebbins 04-04-05, 08:04 PM	Heck, I believe the core specialists are worth it. The extra spell-per-level makes it worth it to give up two schools. It's not easy but, depending on what specialist you want to play, you can minimize the pain and I believe it becomes worth it then. So having additional options in UA makes it a no-brainer for me.
LukiLoki 04-04-05, 08:18 PM	I agree with Dave, there. I mean, all I hear against specialists is, "you're giving up versatility!" But how much versatility do you need, really. It is true that in 3.5 they've done a pretty good job spreading around the "good" spells among the schools, but IMO a wizard with access to all but two schools is STILL the most versatile character in the game, without the Bard's "jack of all trades master of none" watered down power traded for versatility. To answer the OP's question, the Conjurer variants are good, and several others are worth the tradeoff.
DM Zoc 04-04-05, 08:53 PM	I don't know for certain, but I think that they specificially powered up the less popular specialists. Particularly, the illusionist, abjurer and diviner seemed more powerful. I was really sad that the conjurer can only spontaneously cast summons spells of a lower level, especially since (IMO) the arcane summons are less powerful than the divine ones. Over all, I don't believe that the extra spell per day is ever worth forcing you to pick one of your two spells per level from a given school; I could care less about losing access to schools. Even with these variants, I still believe that it is never worth playing a wizard instead of a sorcerer (unless it is very odd circumstances, such as a one-shot game at level 5).
scwolf 04-05-05, 04:02 PM	I mean, all I hear against specialists is, "you're giving up versatility!" Does the trick where you use a single level dip into sorcerer and use scrolls for spells from your prohibited schools still work, or did they patch over that loophole?
HailSpork 04-05-05, 04:53 PM	If you do that, you have to make a caster check each time you try to use a scroll above level 1. You could just as easily take a level of cleric with the magic domain... Also, if you "dip into sorcerer", I beleive your charisma will also limit what scrolls you can cast. An easier "loophole" is to take ranks in UMD, even as a cross class skill.
Icewraith 04-06-05, 04:46 AM	Divination specialist is worth it. If you plan to prestige, give up your familiar for minor improvements to a couple div. spells. Even without the actual variants in UA, giving up one school for a free true strike at low levels and foresight at high levels is quite nice. Having free slots for those nice divination spells means that you might have a better idea of what spells would best annihilate the opposition. Hey... demons are in the future! Don't prep Lightning Bolt!