A mad experiment - wizard -> scientist conversion for sci-fi

[Morrus]

This is a somewhat odd experiment, but I'm playing with reskinning classes for sci-fi settings. I figured the wizard would be a fairly easy one to do (replacing magic with science), so I gave it a shot.

It's not perfect by any means. I haven't spent *that* long on this; I'm just playing with the concept to see if it seems to "work".

I think it kinda does - although some things don't quite fit (how do you explain spells per day in terms of technological processes per day? I figured you maybe needed specially pre-prepared custom energy packs or something)

Anyway, feel free to take a look. There are likely some errors and some clumsy bits, but that's not too important right now.

 

[paradox42]

It's somewhat peripheral to what you appear to be attempting, but were you aware of The Fantastic Science: A Technologist Sourcebook? It's for old 3.X d20, but I have a copy and the class presented in the book is very much like what you say you're looking to do.

 

[Morrus]

It's somewhat peripheral to what you appear to be attempting, but were you aware of The Fantastic Science: A Technologist Sourcebook? It's for old 3.X d20, but I have a copy and the class presented in the book is very much like what you say you're looking to do.

I am familiar with it. I published it!

 

[paradox42]

I am familiar with it. I published it!

I had hoped so, but sometimes publishers forget what they put out for sale.

Anyway, you know, then, that it's pretty close to what you appear to be trying to do here, though for this thread you're clearly trying to change the "skin" of the whole thing to sci-fi rather than fantasy. But that's really more of a setting thing, as far as I'm concerned; mechanically it works out to be the same doesn't it?

I should perhaps explain my bias here: my own homebrew setting combines fantasy and sci-fi; both are speculative fiction types, and I never saw the need to distiguish them or keep them apart the way so many other people do. I'm currently updating it to PF rules, but I never actually made a full "technologist" class for it- I just used a couple of Knowledge subskills (folded together along with "Use Tech Device" into one Knowledge (Science) skill in the PF version) and Craft (Technology) to simulate that part of it. I figured, after careful thought, that technology and science in a mixed setting like mine should really be skills that anybody can use, rather than an ability specific to one class.

But that's me.

In a full-on sci-fi setting, it does make sense to make a class for technologist; basing it on the spells-per-day Wizard may be problematic though.

 

[Morrus]

But that's me.

In a full-on sci-fi setting, it does make sense to make a class for technologist; basing it on the spells-per-day Wizard may be problematic though.

Sure. I was going for extreme ease of use rather than new classes. A class you already know well just reskinned is the easiest way to do it, IMO.

 

[radja]

could be worth a shot to watch some old babylon 5 footage. the technomages are basically just that: mages based on high technology (sufficiently high to make it indistinguishable from magic)

 

[Liquidsabre]

How familiar are folk with the Words of Power variant for Pathfinder that was introduced in Ultimate Magic?

It seemed to fall upon a collective gamer *shrug* of indifference but I think its absolutely brilliant if you apply the concept to technological and scientific themes.

Can you imagine using "Tech" words to build a jury-rigged apparatus (i.e. a spell) to repair the star drive, boost the ship weapon systems, or send a virus to hack into the station's mainframe?

That's how I'd enjoy seeing the "spells" converted keeping the same class structures we find in Pathfinder! Its something I've been looking at ever since Paizo released their play-test version.