This is how I feel when I see this class. It's got all the right parts but none of them form a cohesive whole. I don't get the sense of it being anything more than a hodge-podge of thrown together elements to fulfil the overall brief. There are no interesting or unique mechanics, no readily identifiable class elements that stand out as, "I am an Abjurer!"
Is it an arcane ranged defender? Sure, but is it an Abjurer? No.
Yeah, I can see that. I'll go back and read some of the abjurer specialist stuff from 2e and 3e, protection from evil, "thou shalt not pass", and all that. But there isn't much depth to it (apart from the arcane ward) - not trying to make an entire new class, just enough to run a couple games with.
I don't say any of this to be mean.
If I was worried about that I'd never post on the Internet.
I really do dig the concept. I just feel that it needs a much more in-depth approach and a much more clearly defined conceptualisation of the core idea and a more readily identifiable and unique set of mechanics for the concept to really shine.
Thanks, yeah I'm puzzling over that too.
For starters, I really, really like the arcane ward idea, and I think it's from there that the abjurer as a defender or leader should come.
That's kind of my thinking too.
If you're going to make the abjurer as a defender, I think it has to have more abilities that encourage enemies to attack the abjurer over his allies. For example, if arcane warding was once per turn and could only work on allies, that could provide incentive to attack the abjurer. I think it would be best to come up with a reason as to why the magic only works on allies - perhaps the only way to get such magic to work is to "counterbalance" it by putting the abjurer at a disadvantage.
I really like mechanics to reflect narrative and vice versa, so that kind of "it works on your allies but not you" is jarring for me. And other players in my group too. What do you mean I'm not my own ally? has come up several times in our game.
While I'd tweak some of them a bit, you do have some powers that I like which provide incentive for attacking the abjurer over allies - Counterstrike, Abjurer's Bolt, and Redoubled Defense. But I feel like the rest don't do this enough or provide too much of a counter incentive to attack the abjurer.
I agree those have the better mechanics, but the others definitely are defensive for the party as a whole.
Mighty Lance makes a great power when readied against an enemy, and can effectively shut down one attack per round. Have that done a few times or trigger an opportunity attack getting launched into a trap and you'll have enemies after the abjurer in no time.
Repulsion Sphere is meant to be used with allies inside the burst, especially wounded ones or squishies. But it could just as easily be used to defend the abjurer. Maybe it should have that enemies within the sphere take X force damage if they end their turn adjacent to you or any ally. Or something like an enemy who is tough enough to reach the center of the sphere (i.e. adjacent to the abjurer) no longer suffers any penalties. Hmm, something like X damage for entering the sphere, X+2 for the next square, until finally no damage next to the abjurer. Kind of the opposite of how I set it up.
Telekinetic Fling I'll admit is just my love for mages tossing around monsters like bean bags against the ceiling and floor. I could make this work as a trapped square or three which detonates when an enemy passes through.
Cleansing Force is a straight up leader ability and I didn't do well writing it up. It really should be more akin to an offensive Dispel Magic, ending conjurations, zones, and such, but when I wrote it I had countering dominated and ongoing spell damage on my mind.
IMO, there should be more powers that bring enemies toward the abjurer (via pulls or teleports) or make it harder to attack the abjurer's allies than it would be to attack the abjurer. I don't mind some "out of role" encounter or daily powers, but if you're going to have roles the majority of powers should focus on that role's job IMO.
Doesn't the resist damage effectively make it much harder for enemies to down PCs? I mean it changes the whole approach to combat when you've deal 1d8+5 damage and 5 of it is negated. Add that up over several attackers and suddenly you need to send the hardest hitters against one PC. Or take down the abjurer and the rest of the party is bacon.
Originally I contemplated a energy sphere around the abjurer, like temporary hit points, that once it was destroyed one of his wards would end. The energy sphere could build back up (some kind of warlock darkspiral pact boon inversion), but in the moment the abjurer has to decide between getting out of dodge or re-creating ward on the ally who just lost it.
I did think about pull powers, and even creating a narrow bandwidth of movement, but that seems to fly in the face of the whole concept of abjuration - protecting, repelling, banishing.
I feel like defender hp, a high Int and features like Swordmage's Warding and Guardian Staff Expert, they aren't going to need much more in the way of damage mitigation, at least with respect to AC (although, like the swordmage, I feel bad for the abjurer's Will defense
). So I think you can play down those abilities.
Btw, the Guardian Staff Expert is a feat combined with a superior implement, it's not part of the class per se.
I would give the abjurer the Essentials version of Magic Missile as their bread and butter ranged basic attack. That way, when enemies do things that trigger a basic attack, the abjurer will auto-hit them in return. That will make them better defenders IMO.
That makes sense. But it also robs the coolness of detonating Arcane Wards. Maybe that schtik is part of what [MENTION=56189]Kzach[/MENTION] felt made it feel like a hodgepoge.
I might also give them Defender Aura, explaining it as a magical entropic field, and something that lets them use a ranged basic (ie, Magic Missile) if an adjacent enemy shifts away.
Except it's a ranged defender.
Abjurers should have more at-wills that pull, inhibit the movement of adjacent enemies, and otherwise make it more difficult for enemies to get away from the defender. I might not make them immune to OAs, but I might give them that feat that gives a +2 to OAs (the name escapes me!).
Defensive mobility? Yeah I really am not grokking the "come to me now" idea you've got as it applies to an abjuration specialist. Maybe you can go into more detail about what you're thinking?
I will say, seeing the writeup of an abjurer as defender has made me much less resistant to the idea of a "defender wizard." I think it could work mechanically, be fun to play, and make sense in the D&D world. I might make the more martial, controllery abjurer a Con secondary build, while a more defensive, more leadery abjurer could be Wis secondary (I might give the Wis build the ability to use Wis as damage resistance in some way, because it might need the durability!).
Good idea!
What did you use to make your character sheet?
Good old fashioned Microsoft Word. Next question.
Thanks for the comments guys, very helpful.
