Greetings everyone,
I have a couple of questions for everyone. First, is there anything bad about taking a character without a bonus to Constitution? I want to make a Wizard along the same idea as Raistlin from Dragonlance in Adventurer’s League. He is going to be weaker, both physically and health wise, but smart and wise, with a dexterous hand. I am just wondering if this is a bad idea in the long run or do people think he could last a while? Secondly, are there any Arcane Traditions that people have not seen normally taken? I know, or think I know, that certain ones are more common. What I am wondering is which ones are less common? Thank you for any help.
Juniper
Bob_no_Oni wrote:
It takes a while, but Conjuration at level 10 lets you ignore damage for purposes of maintainig concentration.
Blade2718 wrote:
Pauper wrote:
I'll only point out that you can find any number of players, from AD&D through Fifth Edition, who feel that a 10 Con on a wizard is itself a crippling weakness.
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Pauper
Pauper wrote:
Pauper wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Well, in AD&D, there wasn't much difference at all between a 9 and 10 -- for some stats, there wasn't much difference between a 7 and a 13, for that matter.
That's why, despite the old-school 3d6 per stat rules, enough players used alternative die-rolling systems so that most of their abilities ended up being 15 or higher. For example, here are the stats for the original tournament characters provided in the G-series modules:
Gleep Wurp the Eyebiter (lvl 12 magic-user): S10, I16, W12, D15, C16, Ch13
Cloyer Buise the Magsman (lvl 13 thief): S12, I14, W11, D18, C15, Ch15
Roaky Swerked (lvl 12 cleric): S16, I10, W18, D12, C16, Ch17
Frush O'Suggill (lvl 14 fighter): S17, I11, W10, D14, C17, Ch13
Fonkin Hoddypeak (lvl 5/8 fighter/magic-user): S15, I15, W9, D18, C16, Ch18
Fierd Tranite (lvl 9 cleric): S14, I12, W16, D17, C16, Ch18
Redmod Dumple (lvl 9 fighter): S18(74), I11, W8, D15, C17, Ch8
Faffle Dwe'o-mercraeft (lvl 9 magic-user): S16, I18, W17, D17, C15, Ch12
Beek Gwenders of Croodle (lvl 9 ranger): S15, I14, W16, D17, C18, Ch16
The lowest Con score in this group is 15! Over half of the characters have a Con score as high or higher than their arguable prime requisite stat!
Also of interest, only two characters have any stat lower than 10, and there are more stats at 15+ (35) then there are below 15 (25); heck, there are more stats at 16+ than there are stats below 15. If you want to know where the fetish for high-stat characters comes from, start by looking in Gary Gygax's closet.
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Pauper
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
Pauper wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Radaceus wrote:
BRJN wrote:
Bob_no_Oni wrote:
A second idea is to go with necromancy and use the Raistlin look and feel because he/she used or played with death magic and somewhere in his/her it messed them up and now they have what quirks you give them as the result. Or they had been using death magic for so long that it is taken a affect on your character . Just some other ideas!
Nozareem wrote:
I play a conjuror as my main character - but not a summoner. I am currently 8th level and primarily use illusions and evocations as my spells. With that being said I make tactical use of minor conjugation and benign transposition + misty step.
Ainulindalion wrote:
A) I had 2 players join my Encounters game at the same time. One is playing a Ranger with a Con of 8, and one is playing a Warlock with a con of 8. I went through the character creation process with them and thats what they wanted.
B) I have yet to see a Transmuter , Abjurer or Illusionist. Then again Wizard is not a popular choice my way. We have lots of Paladins, Fighters, Rogues and Rangers and not much else.
Sculpt spells is objectively the best ability of any of the level 2 perks. 5e spell design tends to slant heavily towards 'you should always cast damage spells', Except for a few specific spells, battlefield control spells were nerfed super-uber-mega hard in several ways....concentration mechanic, and near universal addition of 'save when it hits you PLUS get a save every round' from nearly all of them. Walls tend to have more limited shapes now, Slow is terribad, you see where I am going.
Sleep is VERY powerful at 1st-2nd level. Then after that lHypnotic Pattern is one of the only good control spells. It is no wonder the spells are good, because they break from the 'normal' spell perameters. Go figure.
The AL adventures have pretty stable trend of throwing large groups of mobs at the party, so being able to drop a fireball point blank in the middle of 3 or 4 allies without hurting them is really strong.
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
imaginaryfriend wrote:
Ainulindalion wrote:
Not saying the Evoker options are bad, they just don't do a lot unless a set of reasonably unlikely to be consistent circumstances happen. If your groups tend to be consistent about tactical behavior, then it will be more useful.
But that's not inherent to AL, that's inherent to the people you play D&D with...
Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:
I also have a guy who plays occasionally in my Encounter games who really really wanted to be a Red Wizard of Thay. He is playing an Evocation specialist mage. I had no real issue with it and as he made his character in the EE season, there was a whole enclave he could effectively make a character out of. He is factionless and hasnt cause too many issues yet.
I just learned (after being in the group about 6 months) that our Wizard is a Transmuter. I'm going to have to find a way for his specialist-ability to 'make a difference', then remind him of it. Have to wait and see if he uses it, or does something else.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
Well, in HotDQ there were 2 named Red Wizards. One was an evoker, and the other was an illusionist. All the rest used mage statistics from the DMG which did not have any specialization bonuses.
Byakugan01 wrote:
Very interesting thread! A clever wizard has friends and allies to take damage for her, right? Yes, you have a dagger, but if you have to draw it in anger, you've done something terribly wrong.
I'm currently playing either a bard or a fighter in AL, since there are a lot of wizards and sorcerers at my normal table. However, I have some thoughts of non-traditional wizards that I'd play if I got a chance, borrow them if you'd like:
Quill - a diviner, very sedentary guy who never intended to leave the city where he provided a service of finding lost people and items for a fee. Personal events encouraged/forced him to leave his comfortable business for an adventure armed with divination spells, and someone owes him. He's going to have to use the special knowledge together with some mundane supplies to give his friends and allies the advantage. Oil, caltrops, ambush tactics, etc.
Cedric of the Citadel - Abjuration - already discussed above, but this seems like a very conservative mindset, fairly dwarvish in outlook. There are lots of great abjuration spells, but the caster needs to make it clear to his friends that he'll protect them magically, it's their job to deliver damage to the other side.
Necromancy - can this be done without the caster being evil? That's what I'd like to try. A life-affirming necromancer, someone who, like Da Vinci, is so obsessed with observation and discovery that she must learn what force animates life, how it can be strengthened, transferred from body to body, what happens to a possessed body's spirit? What can you get an object to do, if it's animated by a captured life force? So many questions.
Nozareem wrote:
Exactly. Remember the point of 5e FR was to reset things back to the way early 3.0 FR was. So the whole Szass Tam taking over has probably been rectified and the schools of magic probably have equal footing again. im certainly treating my FR in AL more akin to the just post time of troubles business
Kalani wrote:
Coredump:In a way so did I because it mechanically for me represented a Wizard isnt just a generalist (although there should an allowance) and going to far into studying one type of magic means you sacrifice something else. Its all about the trade off.
However thats not done in 5e, and for the moment (and probably future) the Red Wizard is simply a Wizard of Thay.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
HmmmMMmmm now there is some interesting choices... We could go free the Thayans from the oppression of Szass Tam somewhere down the line.. and put a more....enlightened Red Wizard in charge?
Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the Harpers sounds like music to my ears already.. 
imaginaryfriend wrote:
Honestly mate, Canon means next to nothing to me in regards to AL. Any concept is fair play UNTIL I see a 5e FRCS or like has happened in AL the setting is detailed.
So in my AL, That is back to being ruled by its council of Zulkirs for each type of magic.
Tyranthraxus wrote:
What Im saying is that I never played any 4e Encounters. I have little to no idea what the Szass Tam storyline was in 4e. Ive not read anything in any Expeditions that tells me that the Red Wizards I see are rogues or anything like that. Sadly I never got to play Hoard or ROT (I got to play Hoard up to Waterdeep then had to stop because we had all these new new players and they had no game to play so I started Lost MIne).
In my AL (which is still AL), Red Wizards can be Necromancers, Diviners and so on. Ive got no issue. For all intents and purposes its a purely cosmetic thing for their character because again with have no FRCS to tell me otherwise or any AL literature directly telling me 'No, this isnt how Thay is now'.
Im running Princes of the Apocalypse.. and if I see anything on how That is now, Ill glady take any information it gives me, even if it proves me wrong. Ive no issue with being proven wrong.
Again if we get a FRCS, If it proves me wrong then it happens. Ill live with it.
Until then , all the Zulkirs are back n play. Its dosnt really matter too greatly because I only have one player locally who is playing a Red Wizard Diviner. Hes liking it, and Im not going to tell him that he needs to be a Rogue Red Wizard .
imaginaryfriend wrote:
I play across two AL groups and a home game
In one AL, we've got two abjurers...
In the other, we've got two diviners...but they're both people who have multiclassed into wizard just long enough to get the fortune dice.
In the home game, we've got a MC fighter/abjurer (it's about as close as he could get to a sword mage and he enjoys it)
And I've only been to two cons, where I saw *no* wizards.
WillemManderly wrote:
Nozareem wrote: