Is the Illusionist Dead?

[Dannyalcatraz]

OK...they lose flame arrow. (Looked it up...now, its not so good a spell- I'm not sure I'd take it if I were a Transmuter! Did they ever reprint the Fiery Bolts part of the spell anywhere?)

I'm not too concerned. I still stand by my point that Shadow Conjuration IS NOT ABOUT POWER. It is about flexibility. It allows the sorcerer who has a much more limited spell repetoir to double the number of arcane effects at his disposal...and that's just assuming the spells from the PHB.

If you include setting specific spells, that number is going to jump dramatically. (OK, not in Eberron, the only one I have in arm's reach, but that's a new setting.) I'm sure Forgtten Realms, Kalamar, Ravenloft, etc. have all kinds of conjuration spells. (Side note: anyone familiar with the way Shadow Magic spells work in Ravenloft?) What about Complete Arcane?

Among 3rd party publishers, Fast Forward Entertainment's compendium, The Book of all Spells, contains spells from 31 Mongoose, Bastion, Fantasy Flight, AEG, Paradigm, Sword and Sorcery and even Sony D20 Fantasy sourcebooks. There are 42 Zero through Third level Conjuration spells added from those sources (as well as 72 Illusion spells over that same range, FYI).

 

[Altalazar]

If I were to guess, probably because a trickster/tinkerer who knows a bit of magic (i.e. a bard) seems about right for stereotypical D&D gnomes, and because they understood that making a specialist the gnome's favored class was silly.

Silly or not, it is TRAD-IT-IOOOOOOOOOOON! (Sing it!)

And I liked it - I have had a few gnome illusionists in my day and they were quite fun to play. I just can't accept bard, and so in any world I play in, it is still Illusionist as a favored class...

And why get all caught up in which specialist is "more powerful" anyway? I like to think of it in character terms - heck, you could even have fun with a Diviner that way - just come up with creative ways to use what you have and incorporate that into the personality of the character. Maybe he or she is a pacifist and so figures it is better to use knowledge to diffuse situations before they devolve to violence. That's the fun of playing, for me. If it all boiled down to just who can make the most tactically effective combat character, then it starts to get old after a while - you figure out the optimal tactical character, then end up playing variations on it over and over, instead of something fresh and new.

Diviners of the world unite!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Diviners? Love-em.

Currently playing a multiclassed one who is Indiana Jones-esqe- a sage specializing in the Underdark.

Diviners also make EXCELLENT spies/assassins. In that mode, I find a way to get them a good weapon (either in terms of concealability or damage dealing) and load 'em up with True Strike...

 

[Simplicity]

Diviners are actually kind of fun to play, just because their role is so clear and they seem
so ineffective...

 

[Henry]

Diviners are actually kind of fun to play, just because their role is so clear and they seem
so ineffective...

Tell that to the Diviner who's loaded up with Evocation spells and has an axe to grind - that extra slot isn't a weakness, it means you don't have to waste any room on your necessary divinations...

I'll also agree that even though Shadow Conj. is flexible, the fact that the spell is so dependant on a saving throw really bugs me. If I were an illusionist, I'd take every advantage and feat posible to boost my save DC. Against a believer, Shadow Conj. and Shadow Evoc. are unholy terrors. Interesting thought - if your comrades voluntarily fail their saving throws, they believe that whatever you create is real, and it has full effect on them!

 

[MerricB]

The illusionist died with 2nd edition, when his special spells were absorbed into the wizard spell-list. The original illusionist had access to some potent spells that the magic-user couldn't duplicate. With that advantage gone, so did the illusionist.

These days, the role of the illusionist is actually filled by the bard.

Cheers!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some optimist!

 

[netranika]

[FONT=&quot]Yes, I saw a card magic trick to my friend where he first showed me the deck of cards. he flipped throughout them all and said "look this is a regular deck" then he showed me the bottom card it was a king of hearts he then smacked the back of the deck with his hand he then flipped throughout the cards again and all of the cards were king of hearts. Can you guess the secrets involved with this trick?[/FONT]

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Hahahaha, oh wow.

Also, post count +1

 

[Plane Sailing]

[FONT=&quot]Yes, I saw a card magic trick to my friend where he first showed me the deck of cards. he flipped throughout them all and said "look this is a regular deck" then he showed me the bottom card it was a king of hearts he then smacked the back of the deck with his hand he then flipped throughout the cards again and all of the cards were king of hearts. Can you guess the secrets involved with this trick?[/FONT]

It looks to me very much as if the secret to this trick is attempting to 'sanitise' a username before using it for spamming. If this isn't the case and you are a genuine user who happened to post something irrelevant to a three year old thread, do please email me and we can discuss things.

Until such point, banned.