D&D 3E/3.5 Savant <3.5>

[LuckyBoneDice]

Description: The Savant is a mage who masters the universe through the flux of the universe. While able to cast spells, the Savant draws from both the Arcane and Divine sources, obtaining vast levels of power. Neither superior nor inferior, the Savant sees all magic as one and the same, reguardless of source.

HD: d4
BAB: Poor
Saves: Fort-Poor, Ref-Poor, Will-Poor
Skill Points: 2+int
Proficiency: Simple Weapons, No Armor or Shields (Suffers ASF)

Spellcasting: The Savant gains spellcasting from both the Wizard/Sorcerer and Druid lists. The Savant uses the Wizard's spells known in combination with the Sorcerer's spells per day. The Savant uses his Wisdom score for bonus spells.

Companion Familiar: A Savant gains a Companion Familiar as an Arcane Heirophant, although it is over 20 levels

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Thoughts?

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

It's a wizard with more spells, a bigger list, and a better familiar. I hope you're not expecting anyone to play any other class in a game where this is available.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

It's a wizard with more spells, a bigger list, and a better familiar. I hope you're not expecting anyone to play any other class in a game where this is available.

how can I make this fair?

 

[Celebrim]

how can I make this fair?

You can't.

It's a really good example of why you can't build balanced classes using a point buy system.

The basic problem with the class is it takes an already strong class, and trades alot of minor features of the class for major enhancements of its core and strongest feature and on top of that takes an animal companion to make it a powerful combatant as well. That can never be made balanced. It's almost a gestalt class. There isn't enough to strip off the class which can do it. Even if the class had a worse than poor attack progress (say +5 at 20th level) and no weapon proficiencies, it still wouldn't get more balanced because its trading away stuff it doesn't really plan to use for stuff it plans to use all the time.

In fact, the only thing I can see that would make it slightly more balanced and still contain the concept is that if it used Intelligence or Charisma as the base for its spellcasting rather than Wisdom. As it is, this class can dump stat everything but Wisdom and Constitution because it doesn't need anything else. But that just raises a minor difficulty for the would be optimizer; it does nothing to make this actually balanced. In fact, it still probably wouldn't be balanced even if it dropped the animal companion.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

You can't.

It's a really good example of why you can't build balanced classes using a point buy system.

The basic problem with the class is it takes an already strong class, and trades alot of minor features of the class for major enhancements of its core and strongest feature and on top of that takes an animal companion to make it a powerful combatant as well. That can never be made balanced. It's almost a gestalt class. There isn't enough to strip off the class which can do it. Even if the class had a worse than poor attack progress (say +5 at 20th level) and no weapon proficiencies, it still wouldn't get more balanced because its trading away stuff it doesn't really plan to use for stuff it plans to use all the time.

In fact, the only thing I can see that would make it slightly more balanced and still contain the concept is that if it used Intelligence or Charisma as the base for its spellcasting rather than Wisdom. As it is, this class can dump stat everything but Wisdom and Constitution because it doesn't need anything else. But that just raises a minor difficulty for the would be optimizer; it does nothing to make this actually balanced. In fact, it still probably wouldn't be balanced even if it dropped the animal companion.

What if I flipped the Spells/Day and Spells Known, so it's Sorcerer's Spells Known with Wizard's Spells Per Day (The only major differences within the two, other than Prepared vs Spontansous)
Plus, It is only a prototype, as in I was looking for ways to fix it so my players could use it

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

Anybody???

 

[milo]

I think if you went with the sorcerer spells known and just lowered the max spells per day at each level to 5 instead of 6 it would be ok. Instead of the Arcane Heirophant companion just give him a regular animal companion and bump the base will up to good progression. Basically gives you a sorcerer with more spells to chose from, less spells per day, and a different stat to cast from.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

I think if you went with the sorcerer spells known and just lowered the max spells per day at each level to 5 instead of 6 it would be ok. Instead of the Arcane Heirophant companion just give him a regular animal companion and bump the base will up to good progression. Basically gives you a sorcerer with more spells to chose from, less spells per day, and a different stat to cast from.

I thought the Familiar Companion was a better hybridization

 

[milo]

Yeah, the familiar companion is better than either, that is why I was suggesting just going with the animal companion to help keep it balanced. Losing the spell per day helps balance having druid spells to chose from.

 

[Chronologist]

You could houserule that a Wizard could forego school specialization and instead be able to learn Druid spells in his spellbook. However, preparing a Druid spell takes up 2 spell slots rather than 1. If it's more of a willpower thing than study, you could do the same for Sorcerers, but they lose access to their Familiar class feature instead.

Also, take a look at the new Witch class for Pathfinder; it has a hybrid arcane/divine spell list; though it is fairly small, the Witch knows all the spells on it and can cast them spontaneously.