Arcanist

Having two arcane caster classes strikes me as bad design- they're two subclasses of an implied concept. This is my try at that parent concept.

Arcanist
BAB +1/2
Good save: Will

Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Spells/Day
(Level) 0/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9
(1) 3/1
(2) 4/2
(3) 4/2/1
(4) 4/3/2
(5) 4/3/2/1
(6) 4/3/3/2
(7) 4/4/3/2/1
(8) 4/4/3/3/2
(9) 4/4/4/3/2/1
(10) 4/4/4/3/3/2
(11) 4/4/4/4/3/2/1
(12) 4/4/4/4/3/3/2
(13) 4/4/4/4/4/3/2/1
(14) 4/4/4/4/4/3/3/2
(15) 4/4/4/4/4/4/3/2/1
(16) 4/4/4/4/4/4/3/3/2
(17) 4/4/4/4/4/4/4/3/2/1
(18) 4/4/4/4/4/4/4/3/3/2
(19) 4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4/3/3
(20) 4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4/4

[The wizard spells/day chart.]

Spells Known
(Level) 0/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9
(1) 4/2
(2) 5/2
(3) 5/3/0
(4) 6/3/1
(5) 6/4/2/0
(6) 7/4/2/1
(7) 7/5/3/2/0
(8) 8/5/4/2/1
(9) 8/5/4/3/2/0
(10) 9/5/4/3/2/1
(11) 9/5/5/4/3/2/0
(12) 9/5/5/4/3/2/1
(13) 9/5/5/4/4/3/2/0
(14) 9/5/5/4/4/3/2/1
(15) 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/2/0
(16) 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/2/1
(17) 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/3/2/0
(18) 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/3/2/1
(19) 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/3/3/2
(20) 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/3/3/3

[The sorceror spells-known chart, with a 0 tacked on to indicate no spells known of that level at appropriate levels. A 5th level arcanist can cast 3rd level spells, but doesn't know any yet.]

Spells: An arcanist casts spells from the sorceror/wizard list. An arcanist can either prepare her spells ahead of time, or cast them spontaneously.

Prepared spells are governed by Int, and have their DCs set by it. An arcanist can prepare bonus spells based on Int as well. She can prepare spells she knows, or from a spellbook.

Arcanists can spontaneously cast from the list of spells she knows. These spells are governed by Cha, and have their DCs set by it, and get bonus spells/day from it. Prepared spells reduce the number of spontaneous spells an arcanist can cast.

Example: A 1st level arcanist with an 16 int and 16 cha. Bonus spells/day for each are 1 1st-level spell. She can cast (ignoring bonus spells) 3 0th-level and 1 1st-level spell/day. She knows 4 0th- and 2 first-level spells.

She can cast spontaneously up to 4 1st level spells, which must be from the two she knows. She can prepare up to 4 1st level spells, from those she knows, or from a spellbook. Each prepared spell reduces the number of spontaneous spells castable per day. Prepare 2, and she can only cast 2 spontaneously.

So obviously, if you have a much higher Int, it's more optimal to just prepare all your spells; the known spells do ensure that if you lose access to a spellbook, you aren't completely hosed. If you have a much higher Charisma, you can prepare as many spells as you'd like, particularly ones you don't know but expect to use that day, and can still have a couple spontaneous slots with which to cast your known spells. Preparing spells is also useful for the higher-Cha caster who wants to use a metamagic feat and avoid the casting time extension for spontaneous metamagicked spells.

This class pretty much does away with the need for the Spell Mastery feat for wizards, and the Prepare Spell feat for sorcerors, those abilities are built-in.

What would be an appropriate bonus feat progression for this class? Obviously, they can get a familiar at 1st level. 1 every 5 like the wizard? Also, I don't think they should be able to convert prepared spells into a known spell spontaneously (like clerics), but that might be a new implementation for the Spell Mastery feat.

Spell Mastery:
Select a number of spells equal to your charisma bonus (int?) from the spells you know. They must be at least one level lower than the highest spell level you can cast. You can convert prepared spells of an equal or higher level into one of the spells you have mastered spontaneously, like a cleric casting cure spells.

Spellbooks: Act like a wizard in regards to this, I guess.

I am aware that this class is similar in concept to a class from AU, but that one has you prepare a number of spells every day, and then spontaneously cast those, right? This goes at it a slightly different way.

DanMcS: Hmmm. You and I both are thinking the same thing. I too have proposed a new class, also named the Arcanist, here on enworld

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=69712

Part of my frustration was with the lack of progress the classes show (either) after 5th - why not switch to a prestige class? Also, I'm not a big fan of the theme/concept of the sorcerer - I have dragon blood (or what ever) heritage - behold my spell power! Next to him is a 1/2 dragon, or 1/2 celestial, 1/ what ever - with no sorcerer power.

The sorcerer encourages artillery platform mentality - with no reason to actually stick to a style or theme per their origin. The typical spell selection of the sorcerer was optimized for effectiveness, not for flavor.

The wizard is so....Vancian. I like the image of a wizard with his spell book, but not a wizard becoming a farmer because he lost his spell book and is unable to replace it!

Both have familiars - but the familiars have no flavor! They are just a 'awareness and a skill or save bonus' that has to sit next to you. All familiars develop the same. They didn't feal very magic - I found that I agreed with someone’s argument to convert the current familiar to a staff w the same/similar benefits. After all, if they are all pretty much the same, what does it matter?

Let me know what you think of my Arcanist.

As to your Arcanist: a lot of my 'view' will depend on the feat/ability progression you give it. As to my understanding of it - basically, they are wizards who automatically know (per spell mastery) a # of spells per the sorcerer list. The Arcanist decides which spells to prepare from his spell book - filling up those slots. The remaining slots are used per his sorcerer known spell list, a spontaneous caster. Overall, I like it. You may want to make the sorcerer/spells known list all come from the same (or perhaps 2) school for flavor. I assume these guys are not allowed to specialize in a school of magic. I like the flavor/option in flexibility it gives, though this is definitely more powerful then the base wizard - if they can specialize and have the same bonus feats and abilities.

What do you think of simplifying the thing like this:

• Spells per day as Wizard (including extra slots)
• Spells known as Wizard
• Use the spells known table from the Sorcerer for how many spells (amongst the known ones) can be cast spontaneously
• Cannot convert prepared spells into spontaneously cast, but only cast spontaneously from "empty" slots
• Spells prepared use Int for DC
• Spells cast spontaneously use Cha for DC, and if metamagicked they require longer casting time (as Sorcerer)

It's almost the same as yours, except known spells. A Wizard always learns more spells than Sorcerer, so you'll know many spells but only some of them you would be able to cast spontaneously.

For example at 1st level you'll know all cantrips and 3+Int 1st-level spells, among which you can cast spontaneously 4 cantrips and 2 1st-level spells.

The class is strong but not overpowered because you can't convert prepared spells: you have to choose how many to prepare and how many slots to leave empty. If you leave all your slots empty because you have Cha higher than Int, you will basically work just as a Sorcerer (because that's how many spells you can cast this way) but with less spells/day, but you could Scribe the ones you can't cast spontaneously; if you instead prepare all, you'd be just as a normal Wizard in every respect. The strenght lies in the tactical advantage of being able to mix both ways of casting. I think you may consider to give bonus feats but it's not necessarily needed, since it's definitely better than Wizard.

Li Shenron said:

What do you think of simplifying the thing like this:

• Spells per day as Wizard (including extra slots)
• Spells known as Wizard
• Use the spells known table from the Sorcerer for how many spells (amongst the known ones) can be cast spontaneously
• Cannot convert prepared spells into spontaneously cast, but only cast spontaneously from "empty" slots
• Spells prepared use Int for DC
• Spells cast spontaneously use Cha for DC, and if metamagicked they require longer casting time (as Sorcerer)

It's almost the same as yours, except known spells. A Wizard always learns more spells than Sorcerer, so you'll know many spells but only some of them you would be able to cast spontaneously.

Click to expand...

It's closer to my first draft than you think. Wizards don't really "know" spells, they have them in their spellbook, and I said "Spellbooks: Act like a wizard in regards to this, I guess."

The only difference is that your version requires that the spontaneously-castable spells be a subset of the spells in his spellbook. I didn't explicitly require it, and had I thought about it, I would have specified the opposite, that they didn't need to be.

I dislike how tied a wizard is to his spellbook. If it gets destroyed, he is screwed. Capital-S SCREWED. No other class is this dependant on a single object. Clerics need a holy symbol, true, but those are cheap and relatively easy to replace.

So I would allow an arcanist to prepare spells from any spellbook, not just their own, and probably give them Read Magic as a free "known spell". Frees them from some scribing costs, lets wizards crib off each others' books. I'll probably lower the scribing costs too.