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#1 taltamir Jun 16, 2004 20:15:02	I write this leaving many things open, the idea is that you get to fill the gaps. I will often give examples which I think appropriate, but you are welcome, nay, encouraged to change those to balance within your own campaign! Sometimes I would even randomly throw out numbers as examples for calculation methods, so don’t take it all as gospel. I cannot have unlimited creativity, and even if I do someone is likely to think of something better, for anything for which I invented a term I welcome people to make up better terms and POST THEM, then I could apply the really good/popular ones to this article! I have over time encountered certain problems with the approach for magic and a few other subjects, specifically: 1. "It's impossible” (especially in magic) 2. Supporting changes to accommodate my suggestions! 3. Magical Prestige Classes (henceforth MPC) 4. Forbidden Schools 5. Generalization 6. Specialization 7. Simplification 8. Epic characters and those rules 1. “It’s impossible.” One must remember that NOTHING is impossible! ESPECIALLY in a world full of magic and myth and gods and dimensions beyond count! For such, impossible can only apply to the methods, and even then only to very certain ones. Characters would want to overcome their weaknesses and limitations, that is a natural thing; Many DM’s feel it is their duty to prevent the characters from doing so, because doing so goes against the rules, or rather against what was originally specified in the roles of the character. I do not presume to know if it was so intended by the original creators of the D&D or did it just occur that way by chance; however people must keep what I said in mind. When a character wants something done (an end result), it should always be automatically possible (unless it defines that in its process that it bars the possibilities of other things), and then what the DM should decide is how it can be achieved, and how much would it cost (not only monetary cost). This all goes together with the fact that there is more then one way to reach a goal (milk a cow, pluck the goose, etc), a thing can be achievable by a feat, a magic spell, an item, skills, and many other ways. An example would be if a wizard wanted to be able to cast “spontaneously” on certain situations, some would say it is impossible, because the wizard description specifically says that he cannot, however that isn’t really true, a wizard can use a wish or minor wish to imitate any lower spell, thus effectively allowing him a spontaneous cast; at the cost of XP. In the crafting of feats, spells, and PRC one must recall that tidbit, and thus allow everything, at a reasonable cost or effort. Another example is if a mage did not want to waste his precious XP on casting spells or crafting items, naturally there must be ways around it. Allow evil ceremonies to be researched where human sacrifice could power the crafting, or perhaps allow for special magical components to power such a thing, so a PC who is capable of killing a green (evil) great wyrm could use his heart to power similarly. Even the normal anathema of the new “balanced” system isn’t impossible, for example a spell to gain XP, such a spell could be for example: Consume soul: Character may cast this spell to charge a dagger for 1 round a level, when the dagger is used to stab an infant to death it draws his soul out for the caster to feed on, granting the caster power. And the price, it leaves a taint on the person who performed it, which can be detected by anyone who can detect evil aura’s, they will know exactly what the character did and will hunt them down. If the XP granted from is major, perhaps a 10th level archon appears and immediately attacks the character. Alternatively the DM might say that spells like that exist, and let their evil character’s research them, and when they do they are immediately smitten by the good god’s, struck dead. Thus the spell is possible, it is just not useful. An alternative is to have the goal of a long quest be to collect the rare spell components to create a potion of power, which WILL grant the character XP (i.e. power), but require a long quest to acquire (or insane amount of money to hire someone to get it for you) A third example, if you were sick of using up 100 GP every time you wanted to identify an item. Then you could perhaps create a higher level spell that allows you to use a pearl as a focus instead of a component. Such a spell will take time to develop, and will cost money to develop, it will likely save you some money over your career, but it is only feasible later on, if the DM thinks its too powerful, then perhaps have it require a feat too, a feat he crafted that is specifically designed for this purpose, so make a 4th or 3rd level identify spell for example that uses 10GP pearls instead of 100GP ones, and have a feat called eschew pearl, which allows the mage to eschew pearl and pearl like component from spells of a value of up to 10GP, this gives the character an advantage early on, but at the cost of feats etc, which becomes useless later when he reaches level 21 and gains access to epic eschew materials (eschew 100GP worth of material components). 2. Supporting changes to accommodate my suggestions! These things are mostly self explanatory, and are useful even without my other changes: A. Use Magic Device (henceforth known as UMD) should be a class skill for any magic using class, I would also suggest giving out a +2 Class (or competence) bonus to all UMD checks made by spell casters, so a wizard would have UMD as a class skill and get +2 Class bonus to attempting to use it to imitate an alignment or to attempt to activate a divine scroll. While a trained rouge can still activate divine scrolls better then a wizard can. For a wizard and a rouge that spent the same amount of effort studying the skill the wizard should have the advantage from having the mindset of a spell caster. Alternatively one can make a chart and decide what bonuses and penalties one gets, perhaps the wizard gets a penalty because he attempts to treat divine magic as he would arcane, which is not how it works. B. Half, a simple solution to many problems in D&D, halves are already allowed in skills, you can have half a skill point, which is rather useless because nothing else can have a half, however it can become useful. Most D&D players are well beyond such simple math and in reality it doesn’t simplify things all that much. Allow half modifiers for the characters abilities, and you have eliminated that nasty tendency towards even attributes, the half modifiers will give you, naturally, half a skill point for the things to which they apply, they will also give half bonuses to attack and to damage, and allowing half a HP damage would eliminate the need to round damage when someone succeeds a throw for half damage, etc. C. A calculator is cheap and easily accessible, no need to avoid using one! D. XP penalties. According the rules present in the multi-classing section, cumulative XP penalties STACK through addition, which means that if you have a penalty from multi-classing several classes, as well as perhaps from playing an exotic race or some other predicament, and even XP penalties I would later suggest, you could end up with negative XP “gain” or just 0 XP gain. I would suggest that instead of stacking through addition they will stack through multiplication. Thus if you have a 20% penalty from multi-classing one character and 20% from a second multi-classing and 15% from another penalty, then you would multiply your base XP by the different penalties after converting them to the amount left rather then amount lost. So for 20% penalty you have 80% leftover. Thus you would do XP base times 80/100 times 80/100 times 85/100 for the 20, 20, 15 penalties example given. Naturally some averaging would be required; I would suggest using a calculator and averaging to nearest single percent or .1 of a percent (1 XP per 100 for 1% or 1XP per 1000 for .1%). To keep from “loosing” some XP because of it you could always just keep a pool, so if you gain 1057 percent and your XP loss is a total of 33.4% the you would say you got 1000-334=666 (that was a coincidence, I used random numbers), and you have a “pool” of 57 XP that you add to the next XP gain before calculating it in. The point of this isn’t just to prevent negative XP, but also to make a more realistic spread of XP loss from spreading oneself thin, as with anything else the more you do it the better at it you get, so you loose a little less each time. E. Becoming a diviner makes one give up two schools, just like any other specialization. This will make things simpler for many things, not to mention that later on divination becomes the most powerful school (or one of the most) as it allows one to know the weaknesses of their opponents before hand (unless the DM nerfs it, of course that requires the player to usually make new divination spells or acquire them elsewhere as the ones in the PHB are very limited and are mostly combat related rather then plot related) 3. MPC One thing anyone who has looked at MPC's would immediately notice is that they all offer a lot more power then the base classes, in exchange for not improving your familiar or turning etc. (It specifically says ETC in the description, which is VERY vague, especially because there is maybe one more thing you give up. It’s an excuse to power game, saying etc to make it seem as if much more is given up.) A general rule of D&D is that everything is possible, but when designing a new class or the like one must remember that they should keep things balanced, if you add something, you must remove something. But you must also make sure that the something removed is of value! To most players the familiar is a BURDEN not a boon. It is very limited in its selection, you have to take improved familiar and get the DM approval for any better familiar you choose, and those loose levels for level adjustment. It is a time-bomb, waiting to die on you taking away all those precious XP you so desperately need, while giving you mild benefits at best. How then one asks, do you balance all those precious new MPC gains against the losses? A recommendation of mine is to make the player choose a forbidden school (or more) based on each MPC, or at their discretion, take an XP gain penalty (if you allow people to overcome restricted schools as suggested in the next section, I recommend using the same XP penalty). Also when it applies, make gains to caster level less frequent (2 of 3 levels in the PRC or 1 of 2 etc. will net you a CL for the purpose of spells per day, or better yet, for EVERYTHING as it should really be). For those who are divine casters, the loss of a few extra turnings and a few levels of their turning powers is also not that great, the truly powerful undead monsters have turning resistance or immunity anyways, so turning is only useful at the low levels. When this is implemented, PRCs become balanced again, not only that players can easily say, I want to be a Craft Master, or I want to be a Golemist (Golem Maker), etc. and the DM would be able to help craft such a PRC without thinking (great so they give up their non existent familiar for a lot more powers). Thus PRCs become a way for characters to define themselves again. Where wizard describes the fact the character uses arcane magic, a Golem Master is the person’s description, and profession. Prestigious professions that is; most professions are a simple craft skill. Rather then that, they get the whole bells and whistles, abilities and feats and the like (hence the name Prestige Class). 4. Forbidden Schools Normally a character takes on a forbidden school at 1st level. Sometimes, later in the game, one will take another forbidden school, either due to extra specialization of sorts (non standard feats but they exist), or in the case I just presented, prestige class. People forget that forbidden schools are a SELF-IMPOSED RESTRICTION. For the sake of simplicity it was stated that you take it once, and there are no exceptions. However you must keep in mind that your DM should not have to rein you in all the time to keep you from trying to use a forbidden spell. Forbidden schools are spells your character considers unimportant, and does not bother with to better focus on his true ambition. However as a self-imposed restriction, it can be lifted; it can also be circumvented. If in a dire need, your character CAN attempt to use a wand, for example, from a forbidden school. It would not be easy or as effective as it would have been had he not specialized, but it can be done! EVERYTHING can be done. How to go about it then? Well I would suggest that when trying to activate an item of a forbidden school, your character would make a “Use Magic Device” check on it, just as if it weren’t a spell caster, if a rouge or warrior can use a wand, why cant you? Your character will not automatically succeed as it would if it wasn’t forbidden; instead you make a UMD roll. If it manages to cast the spell, then the spell receives a penalty to its DC of 1 or 2 because the character believes such spells to be inferior to the point of uselessness or just inappropriate (conjures for necromancers, necromancy for the righteous, etc) and that mental state reduces his effectiveness. Doing so is usually a chaotic action as the character breaks a vow important to his advancement of power, but doesn’t necessarily change one’s alignment overnight (although it might have other repercussions). For the DM, if the character consistently tries to "trick" the forbidden school system, just force them to "generalize" or “simplify” (which would be explained next), they can of course always choose to go through with it on their own. Make sure they are constantly doing so and that its not just a one time thing, alternatively talk with the player and attempt to convince them to generalize rather then forcing them, it will prevent the bad taste. You might have a character that specialized because he feels certain things are best attained through money rather then work, thus he would use wands of divination, but never bother learning such inferior arts himself. What is the process of generalizing you ask? It is what happens when a character feels that they should no longer specialize, and want to open up their access to previously forbidden spells. 5. Generalization Before we discuss generalization, I must offer a certain variant class, the specialty caster who doesn’t have forbidden schools. Such a caster puts forth extra work towards mastering a specific school, while still learning spells from all other schools. The cost of that is an XP penalty that is based on the kind of school he specializes in. For one thing it makes specializing USEFUL again, only those who are really desperate to survive to level 3 would normally specialize, or those who need it for a plot reason. As a specialty barely grants any benefits (1 slot per level for select school) while having extreme costs (one or often more schools completely forbidden). The variant is a generalist “name of specialist” (for example, Generalist Evoker, one could use any name they want, and I would also appreciate suggestions for better more creative names). Such a person would get the extra slot per level for his specialty school, while sacrificing XP gain for the extra effort he puts into his studies. This XP should vary based on the school, and calculated based on the current cost in forbidden schools. So a specialty that requires a person to give ANY single school, such as divination, would perhaps cost 10% or 15% or even 20% of XP, while other schools which require the giving up of two schools, except for divination, would likely cost double, or double +5% or -5% (based on how useful divination is in your world setting, and what you think if fair, I recommend a simple double) Now generalization is the process of unlocking a forbidden school, a simple way to do it is to say that to relearn the spells from the schools you neglected you must pause your magical training and go over what you missed, with the end result of you being a generalized specialist as described above. Thus when a character decides to generalize he must put forth FUTURE XP towards it. He cannot use previous XP since he wasn’t doing so at the time, and he essentially halts his magical training until he relearns that. At a DM’s discretion the whole thing could be complicated further by putting a percent towards relearning and percent towards advancement, and perhaps even allowing him to relearn one level at a time. What of the cost? It should probably cost a part of the level cost, since the level cost is 1000 per level (from level 1 to 2 its 1000, from level 30 to 31 its 30,000, etc) I would recommend a fraction of it per forbidden school that you are relearning, with a little extra for the added effort and the fact the character isn’t forced to take feats to accomplish it or other high sacrifices. Thus Since there are eight schools of magic (and the ninth universal pseudo-school) I would recommend 150XP (or perhaps 200XP) per school per caster level minus 1, at a DM’s discretion that can be more, I urge you not to forbid it outright, instead if you really think that it shouldn’t be accessible, make the price really high… require them to spend 300, or even 400 or 500. It is extreme but possible. So the Diviner, Rod Dolomn, is a 7th level Diviner, he wants to generalize, his DM uses the 150XP per level - 1 rule, so he needs 150 + 150 x 2 + 150 x 3 + 150 x 4 + 150 x 5 + 150 x 6; A simple way to calculate it is to say, for 7th level he needed 1000+2000+3000+4000+5000+6000=21,000XP, so it will take 21 x 150 XP to generalize. Based on the DM discretion a feat might be required to generalize (although I recommend against it as it’s a mere decision by the player not a thing learned.) Naturally a partial generalization exists for schools that require two forbidden schools, for those the character chooses which school to learn, and pays XP only for it. Starting Generalized vs. Generalizing later: Normally a DM would make the penalty to generalize at a higher level and the penalty to do it from the start the same. Some might claim that doing it from the start offers an unfair advantage, and thus it should be the greater of the two, others would claim that doing so later allows one to “cheat out” extra XP, or some might say that the one who only generalizes later had to go through a tougher course as he lacked certain spells, and thus should be rewarded with a lesser XP cost. Others would mention that the one who starts out generalizing gets more XP later because he will be held back levels, which would mean he would have a greater difference between his level and the difficulty level of an encounter, which would net him more XP (which can be countered with, only if he fights the exact same monsters, and he wouldn’t unless the DM’s adventure is set in stone). As those all balance out I would just go with the same. 6. Specialization One could naturally choose to specialize later on if they started as a regular wizard. I would suggest that when you designate forbidden schools indicate the CL in which it was taken, so "Forbidden: Divination (4)" means you took it as forbidden school when you were 3rd level or when you leveled to caster level 4 (with the ability to cast spells of up to level 3). Based on the DM discretion a feat might be required to specialize (although I recommend against it as it’s a mere decision by the player not a thing learned). Regardless when a character specializes later on, it should apply to future levels. A DM might decide (and I recommend) that since it is a vow or just resolve to give something up to accelerate one’s studies, specializing at a later point requires one to take on all lower level spells of that school as forbidden, where the level at which it was taken only applying to when he breaks the vow, so he can cast from levels he already knew without needing to make a Use Magic Device check, but he still breaks the vow (or at least, his resolve), if he becomes a generalized specialist later on, he need only relearn the levels he didn’t already know. Naturally when one specializes, new levels gained will have the extra slots, but what of lower levels? I would recommend not involving an XP charge for mastering the lower levels; as it’s not mastering the levels as it is the school, and the person already gives spells from all levels as it was originally intended to work. Thus I recommend that when specializing, one would gain an extra slot in every spell level, per caster level gain (allowing for catching up), it can be chosen to be every 2 levels, which would prevent catching up, but be a price some DM’s require the character to pay. Another option I would suggest is that for every two caster levels one gains, one would gain an extra slot of the specialty school in one’s highest level which lacks one, thus if one specializes at level 6 (or when leveling to level 7) one would have a bonus slot for 4th level spells, and be able to cast spells of his forbidden schools up to and including level 3 without a check (but with breaking the vow/resolve), when he reaches level 9 one would gain the ability to cast 5th level spells, with an extra slot at 5th level, aswell as gaining the extra slot for the 3rd level. Alternatively since it’s easier for a high level caster to cast low level magic, one could gain down slots every single caster level, so at 8th level he would gave an extra slot for 3rd level spells, and at 9th level an extra slot for 2nd level. Gaining every level is recommended as it makes more sense and allows the character to catch up. As a whole this system is only for DM’s who want to allow such power-gaming, or think this makes more sense in regard to how magic works in their mind. Just to clear things up, bonuses for specialization, only apply to levels in which you have extra slots, spell levels that do not are treated as non specialized for purpose of specialization bonuses (the +2 to DC, and others that might stem from other sources, I would suggest that if the character has spell levels that are not yet under the specialization, he would get half and then a quarter to one above his highest specialty and to the one above it respectively). Also keeping track on which levels you have a specialty in is good, if you take the recommended method of starting from spell level 0 and going up (either every caster level gained or every two), then you could record it as “specialty (#)”. This is different then the system for recording forbidden schools since forbidden schools are gained through XP cost per caster level, not SL, that is to prevent vagueness since SL aren’t gained on every CL. Thus a person who became a necromancer at caster level 3, chose abjuration and evocation as forbidden schools, would have forbidden schools: Abjuration (3), Evocation (3) (which shows he knows how to cast those up to level 2 but has abandoned them), at level 4 he gets level 0 extra slot for necromancy, which he labels as specialized schools: necromancy (0), at level 5 it becomes necromancy (1), and so on. His half bonuses would be +1 to DC of level 1 necromancy spells at CL 4 and +0.5 to SL 2 DC at CL 4, at CL 5 it would become +1 for DC for SL 2 and +0.5 DC for SL 3. At level 9 he catches up with his specialization, and can just say “necromancy”, indicating it is for all his current levels. If he becomes a generalized necromancer later, as he pays the cost of the different schools he gains he would increase them appropriately, So if he became generalized at level 10, he already had general knowledge up to level 3 in both, he starts paying from the 4th level, 4 x 150 and so on. He can do that step by step, for example using 600 XP to gain CL 4 in abjuration, then 750 XP to gain CL 5 in abjuration, then 900 for CL 6 and 1050 for CL 7, then pause that and pay 600XP and then 750 XP for levels 4 and 5 in evocation, go back and complete abjuration up to level 10, and then complete evocation to level 10. The order at which he relearns the missing information is entirely up to him. At level 10 he could completely remove them. A caster should be able to scribe a spell to his book even if it is from a forbidden school, such would likely not be done for a character that specializes and avoids a certain school because of plot reasons (a necromancer who detests conjuration), but likely for a person who specializes for a power reason (which is still plot, the pursuit of power is the cause of most adventures and rivalries) or to survive, who intends to later on generalize or simplify (explained later). Obviously there will be myriad reasons for that, and if a player has one then he should go ahead and do it. For example he might scribe them into a second book to trade them with other wizards, he might not need them himself but it will make a good coin, a coin that is valueless to him but invaluable to others. To scribe a scroll of a spell that is forbidden to you is likely to be somewhat harder then usually, since I cannot cast spells in real life I do not know if it’s just a matter of writing down how it’s done, or if there is an actual difference between the different schools of spells. As a safe bet one should just go ahead and give a penalty to spellcraft when making such an attempt, I would suggest around 3. This stems either from lack of practice with that field, or annoyance and working with something you dislike, or lack of drive a mage normally experiences at the prospect of new powers. While one would work very meticulously and single mindedly towards what they really care about, a mere coin for trade would likely receive less attention and be done more sloppily. 7. Simplification Sometimes a mage would just get tired of juggling all that extra details around, or of pushing themselves extra hard in a certain domain (which limits the total growth of their powers by giving them improved capacity within that domain alone), etc. In such a case they would simplify. They would no longer incur an XP penalty for maintaining their “forbidden” schools, and would not gain the benefits of specialization at new levels acquired (although the half bonuses would still apply). At such a change record the current level, for example. Specialist: Necromancy (10). A simplification cannot undo the XP spent to acquire all that extra knowledge and power for previous levels (although I am sure there are things out there that can, special plot related things specifically) as it is simply the act of the wizard choosing to no longer bother with extra work on one school, and instead just follow the general wizarding course. 8. Epic characters and those rules If you play with epic characters, then you should match these rules to the way in which you integrate epics into your world. If you follow the suggestion that all epic spells are SL 10 (but can be modified to act as higher level for various specific tasks, such as spell penetration, by increasing the cast DC), and that you can still have spell slots higher then SL9, for metamagic and the like, you might notice that the extra power comes rather cheaply, an epic level spell requires a spellcraft check to cast, epic spells can be cast of forbidden schools at an increased DC of 15, while specialist schools at a decreased DC of 5. Since you normally gain 1 Spellcraft per level, a gain of 15 levels is incurred when you relearn epics of a forbidden school, and a gain of 5 levels is incurred from having a specialist school. Rather then worry about so much power just instantly coming into the hands of the wizard, and wondering how to countermand it with obscene XP costs, one just smoothes out the gain. First I would recommend that the costs for the SL10+ will continue to be based on individual level. Also, instead of integrating the DC bonuses and costs of specialization into the epic spell itself, those are specifically for the rolls made to beat them (so the forbidden school and specialized school epic spell modifiers become obsolete). Then, each character, when going epic, will receive 32 penalty points due to the “difficulty” of casting such foreign spells (and to keep things balanced of course). Those are applied as following. If the character is simplified, -4 to spellcraft DC of all schools, if the character is a Specialist, divide the entire amount between the forbidden schools of your character, with no more then -16 at an individual school. So -16 each for most cases; if you have only 1 forbidden school, -16 at it, and the other -16 divided between the other 7 schools; if you have 3 forbidden schools, -10 at one, and -11 at two others, or -11 in one and -10.5 in the other two if you allow halves (be consistent). If the character is generalized, divide the points among the schools he doesn’t specialize in. -5 in four of them, and -4 in 3; or, if using halves, -4.5 in 6 and -5 in one. As the characters become familiar with casting such amazing spells, they eliminate those costs. A simplified wizard would eliminate 2 of the penalty points per level beyond 20, divided as he pleases (usually among his highest penalties first, keeping them balanced up to level 36 where they are completely gone). A generalist would do the same, and his XP penalty would account for his extra power with his specialty school. A specialist would not regain those points normally continuing to focus on his preferred schools. Specialists who later generalize would gain one of the lost Spellcraft DC of forbidden schools per CL beyond 20 in that school (as you recall relearned levels are measured in CL, and will still cost the separate amounts of XP per individual levels), which would still only eliminate all the penalties at level 36. Instead of the normal +5 to specialty schools at level 21, it comes only at level 30 (at which point it is maxed), simply subtract 20, divide by 2, and use the score as the bonus, to a max of 5. So a level 21 specialist would have a +0.5 bonus to spellcraft DC of spells of that school, and a level 26 specialist would get a +3 bonus. At your discretion (and to make things really epic, I would recommend that) you might continue that bonus’ growth by 0.5 for every 5 levels or so beyond level 30 (so at CL 35 its +5.5 bonus and at CL 40 its +6 bonus, and at CL 100 it is +12). Key: CL = Caster Level. The level you have in your spell casting class, if you are a straight forward wizard or sorcerer or cleric, etc. Then it would be your level. If you multiclass, then it would count against you DC = Difficulty check SL = Spell level, Spells have levels, at CS 1 you can cast SL 0 (cantrips) and SL 1, and usually gain one SL for every 2 CL afterwards. A simple calculation for the highest SL you can cast if you are in such a class, is (CL+1)/2 rounded down, so at level 5 you can cast, (5+1)/2 = 3, level 3 spells.
#2 zombiegleemax Jun 18, 2004 16:05:50	I appreciate the time and effort you have put into writing this article but, sadly, I disagree with 100% of what you are saying; even as house rules. Your article starts with a confusing introduction. Even then, one has to start reading the points you are addressing. While reading, I'm left wondering why you are addressing these points and only one answer seems obvious. This seems like something written by a player who wants things in his campaign that the DM is not allowing because that DM is following the rules in the books. Specialization is a game balance, while gaining a benefit in the school specialized, it is balanced by having to take prohibited schools. I don't know where you pulled the 'self imposed' part from. This said, let's look at your points: 1) First example is about allowing wizards to spontaneously cast for reasons unknown. Choose a class that casts spontaneously if that's what you want; its called a sorcerer. The second example is about using human sacrifice to bypass the cost of XP in item creation; it defeats the purpose of an XP cost which is game balance. I don't know what the Impossible discution has to due with the rest of the game, you're only addressing magic in the rest of your article. It could, potentially, break the game so to speak (straight fighters with monk physical attack/damage abilities, druids with all kinds of weapons/armor, rogues with higher hit dice, etc.). 2): a) What in the world are you talking about, last time I checked the current edition of the rules all the classes do have access to this skill. Even then, most magic using classes can already use most magic devices; the original intent was a carry over of a rogue/thief rule that allowed them to use magic devices only usable by magic classes. b) The game system already accounts for halfs, however, the game specifically states to round down all halves (that 1/2 skill point is there and effective, its just the overall modifier is rounded down). Even in simple math, all those .5's will get out of hand and its really pointless. Why bother with this? c) A calculator is cheap, but no one wants to bog down their games to run calculations to figure out what in the world is going on. d) Too much math for no good reason, see my last response e) This is done for game balance, that divination specialization doesn't offer a lot of spell choice (offensive or defensive), and it would be further limited by making them choose two schools for prohibition. 3) This is confusing, it seems your just trying to justify being able to have way too many prestige classes without suffering the penalties of doing this. 4) This is ridiculous; it looks like in hindsight to support the idea about using forbidden schools is what lead you to write about UMD's in the first place. If you want to have access to all the schools, don't specialize; it’s that simple. 5) This sounds worse than 4 above. By that, I mean it sounds like again you're trying to gain the benefits of specialization with fewer penalties. If you want to have access to all the schools, don't specialize. 6) Interesting, again the theme is overall specialization and ways to get around the rules ar written. 7) Again trying to bypass the rules by utilizing a bunch of rules you just made up to make specialization less stringent. This would allow someone to specialize in a school that is loaded at low levels with spells and then stop their specialization to get better high level spells in schools they choose as the prohibited ones. Looking over all your magic points, this is what I'm seeing as your intent: Boost the wizard ridiculously. Give wizards the ability to spontaneously cast, so there is no need to pick the sorcerer because they have a limited spell selection. On top of that, make specialization easier so they get more spell slots from various schools, including prohibited ones. As if this wasn't helping the wizard out already, why not make magic item creation easier by removing XP costs with human sacrifice.
#3 taltamir Jun 20, 2004 15:52:57	Yes I agree my introduction was kinda confusing, my bad. 1. You seem to misunderstand, I don’t suggest to make the wizard a spontaneous caster, my point on that subject was that anything is possible, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A COST THAT BALANCES IT. I gave many example of costs, heavy XP penalties, The enmity of gods and powerful organizations, etc. I was saying that instead of saying "you cannot do that because that’s unfair" (blatant metagaming), you would say, “YOU CAN do it, but then the consequences will come and hunt you down.” My whole point was that anything is possible, if there is a reasonable explanation and balanced solution to it. Basically I was encouraging people to use the rules and suggestions for making custom spells and feats and skills and the like found in the DMG. 2. About the UMD, I didn’t say give them access to it, I said make it so its not a crossclass skill, thus they could do it as well as the rouge's, because they are after all specialists in magic. And I believe I stated that that specific change isn’t necessary and might be disagreed with by some. "3) This is confusing, it seems your just trying to justify being able to have way too many prestige classes without suffering the penalties of doing this." 3. About the magic PRC's. I was actually suggesting to reduce their power greatly, my entire gripe was that they sacrifice the useless familiar or spell turning to give IMMENSE powers, making the regular class practically useless. Try reading it again and it will become clear that I am saying to reduce their power. Imposing XP penalties/loss of access to schools/gaining less caster levels from them, instead of the pitiful loss of undead turning power or a familiar. 4. Actually it had nothing to do with UMD, The whole thing started with PRC's, and derailed a bit into the whole specialization subject. 4,5,6,7. If you think imposing stiff XP penalties isn’t a fair trade for opening specialization schools, then don’t use it, I explained the why, how, and ifs of the thing in the article. Its not breaking the rules, it complicates them and changes them somewhat... at most a wizard can use those rules to gain one extra spell slot per level for a specific school only, at the cost of a whopping 15-60% XP penalty. That’s A LOT OF XP. "Give wizards the ability to spontaneously cast, so there is no need to pick the sorcerer because they have a limited spell selection. On top of that, make specialization easier so they get more spell slots from various schools, including prohibited ones. As if this wasn't helping the wizard out already, why not make magic item creation easier by removing XP costs with human sacrifice." Basically you go through my point, saying each one is ridiculous and taking it out of context. I didn’t say to make the wizard a spontaneous caster, I offered lower level spontaneity SCALING, higher level already exist (shadow conjuration, limited wish, wish), AT GREAT COST (wasting 5000 XP to cast a SINGLE spell spontaneously is ALOT), I suggested making some scaleable ones. Only 200 XP to mimic spells of a single school from your class list of level 2 and below for example - I didn’t examine this one closely enough to see if it balances though. On this example I am making a point. Perhaps you misunderstood and thought I am suggesting those costs as a one time thing instead of a per spell issue. They can still only specialize in one school even with all my suggestions, again tons of XP for a single extra slot for a single extra school. Not such a great deal (or follow the regular path of extra slot for lost ability to cast from two schools). As for removing costs, you aren’t removing them you are using something else to pay them, if you go and kill a few goblins, you gain XP which you can use for item creation, now a ritual of sacrificing someone to feed on his life force would allow you to gain a little more XP, but even my suggestion was a mere 50 per person, that’s 400 people for a single +1 enchantment. If you even manage to somehow capture a whole village and sacrifice them. (You would have probably gotten more XP by taking them all on in combat, you likely have and are now squeezing more XP from it by sacrificing them survivors. Think of it as roleplaying XP.) You would have whole nations chasing you down for such atrocities. Finally, I have used wizard as an example for most things, but only half the article is limited to wizards (the whole specializations part), the rest applies to all magical professions. Some parts even more so then to the wizard, additional power for turning for example is even less useful then a familiar, or bardic music for example. PS. I would edit the opening statement to make it clearer, but It wouldn’t let me have access.