D&D 5E Magic user back?!

[tuxgeo]

I'm not on board with removing casting mechanics from classes.

However, I also don't have much familiarity with OD&D, Basic, 1E, or 2E, so the following generalization might be misinformed, but here it is: Until 4E "Essentials," the wizard in D&D always had spells that could be cast daily, and a limited number of spells per day that he or she could cast, and a spellbook to hold the wizard's known spells, and the need to "prepare" spells before using them.

To the extent that the above generalization is true, I think that any attempt to strip those mechanics from the wizard class and place them into the system is going to be a less unifying move that it would be to leave those mechanics in that class.

 

[the Jester]

but all three come from different sources. therefore it would make sense to put them under different categories. but i guess i really dont care, as long as all the different magic using classes dont get put into one class ill be fine!

I've been thinking more about keywords. This is all very rough in the details, but I like the concept here.

Here's the thing: there is no reason why a pc shouldn't have a bunch of different keywords. Let's say that there are a few different "class keywords":

Magic-User: Includes wizard, warlock, sorcerer, cleric, druid and other classes with ten levels of spells (I see in the playtest packet references to this).

Priest: Includes cleric, druid, paladin and other classes who draw their powers from a divine source. Priests have additional keywords based on their alignment.

Psionicist: Includes psion, monk and other classes with powers involving great levels of mastery over their ki or psychic abilities.

Expert: Includes fighter, rogue, ranger, bard and other classes who draw heavily on their own physical abilities and training.

Now note that some characters could have more keywords than others. While a fighter would only have 'expert', a monk would have 'expert,' 'psionicist' and possibly 'priest', depending on the campaign background of the monk's order.

Remember the old sword +1, +4 vs. reptiles? Or the sword +1, +2 vs. magic-using and enchanted creatures?

No reason you can't have a sword +1, +2 vs. wizards as well as a sword +1, +2 vs. magic-users, which is slightly more powerful. (And you don't even need to make a 'Wizard' keyword, since it is already a specific game term.) But if we're going to have keywords, let's make them keywords that count! How about triggers? "The glyph of warding triggers when a magic-user other than Eville opens the secret compartment." How about spells? "This spell charms a creature with the beast keyword."

And let's tag everything with keywords when we put out the books so it's not a pain to do so retroactively. Put a keywords line in every monster's full stat block:

Fire Elemental...
Keywords: Elemental, fire

Lareth the Beautiful....
Keywords: Chaotic, Evil, Priest, Insane

 

[I'm A Banana]

To the extent that the above generalization is true, I think that any attempt to strip those mechanics from the wizard class and place them into the system is going to be a less unifying move that it would be to leave those mechanics in that class.

I can see a scenario where a wizard memorizes spells regardless of the magic mechanic employed for the campaign.

If we consider spellbooks and memorization class features of the wizard, the following becomes true of all wizards, regardless of magic mechanic: They know a LOT of spells, and can choose, at the start of the day, to prepare certain spells for their use.

If the game uses Spell Slots, a wizard fills their slots.

If the game uses Power Points, a wizard chooses what they will spend Power Points on, and how many points they'll spend on which spells.

If the game uses Recharge Magic or At-Will Magic, a wizard chooses which spells to memorize at the beginning of the day, and simply gains them back at a faster rate (and the next day, they can swap out their recharge magic).

This helps differentiate them from a sorcerer, for instance. Sorcerers don't have spellbooks, they simply know the spells they know. Sorcerers don't have to prepare these spells in advance, however, they can choose to cast them at any point.

So if the game uses spell slots, sorcerers spontaneously spend their slots on anything they know.

If the game uses Power Points, sorcerers spontaneously spend their points on anything they know.

If the game uses Recharge Magic or At-Will magic, sorcerers simply can spam their spells more frequently (but they can't swap their spell list out).

Warlocks and clerics could be different, too (perhaps even more like a sorcerer), but regardless of each class's slight differences, the magical mechanics remain the same underneath.

And I imagine that for those of us who like multiple magical mechanics, we can probably use them all at once, too.