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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wyrmshadows" data-source="post: 3961701" data-attributes="member: 56166">Bad, bad bad on all counts.From what I read from WoTC is appears that necromancy, enchantment and summoning are going to be removed from mages making them essentially walking siege engines designed to control a battlefield with powerful spell effects. That's fine, but ALL 4e wizards are spell-blasting crusader mages?It seems that enchatment (charms, domination, etc.) are going to be relegated to psionics (sweet baby jeebus!!!) so as to give psionics a niche. So out is the sexy mage who uses her feminine wiles and a healthy dose of magic to dominate those around her. Out is the powerful mage who enthralls the will of a king so as to be the power behind the throne. So now both of these two are going to have to be psionicists? Summoning is gone, at least for PHB1 which removes another potent wizardly (and priestly) archetype, that of a mage who summons up beings of darkness and forces them to work his unholy will by power of his Art. Maybe in 2009 we'll see wizards (or priests) who are capable of summoning something.Necromancy seems to be off the table for wizards as well. No more twisted necromancers summoning up hosts of undead. I can see priests of dark gods in this role as well, but the wizardly necromancer is certainly another fantasy archetype and it seems to be going the way of the dodo. Maybe PHB 2 or 3 will give rules on necromancers.I never used D&D as a genre. D&D is a ruleset I used to homebrew or run pre-published settings of a variety of types as varied as FR or Darksun. D&D was flexible enough to allow a DM to run plenty of different genres without excessive difficulty. D&D is more than ever becoming something else, an alien genre all its own becoming completely unrecognizable as classic fantasy and if these new changes are any indication, less adaptable to simulating Conan, Tolkien, Lieber, Moorcock, or any other author for that matter and instead enforcing a iron-clad set of D&Disms that are further and further from fantasy fiction.It looks like there is going to be a large niche for 3rd party publishers to fill in creating rules for wizardly necromancers, enchanters, illusionists, summoners, etc. With the PHB1, at least with the current mechanical changes I have seen previewed, there are going to be a very limited number of options in regards to the type of mage a player can choose to play.Also, there are long standing settings in which there are wizards who do much more than blast things. Also, it seems beyond belief that a 20th level mage who has no skill in psionics cannot lay a enchantment on some goons and force them to his will._______________________________________________________Wizard: "I am Maeglar the Unearthly and I am going to craft a spell that will bend the will of the king and his court so I can be the power behind the throne."WoTC: "Um...we have some bad news."Wizard: "Bad news, Maeglar fears nothing!"WoTC: "Sorry, we realize that you can kill fifty men at a time with fire from you blazing wand but dominating the minds of others? That isn't in your job description."Wizard: "What?!?! I am a master of the arcane arts and can travel the very planes of existance doing battle against the choirs of heaven and the hosts of hell as I so choose!"WoTC: "Yeah but, that still isn't charming anyone....that stuff is still in your job description...at least for now. You have to know that there is something even you must fear. A power that even you cannot overcome"Wizard: "Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!!! Tell me little man in a Boba Fett T-Shirt, cutoff jean shorts and WOTC baseball cap what it is Maeglar has to fear."WoTC: "Niche Protection."Wizard: ...________________________________________________________Maybe it is too early for me to be concerned but by the way things are shaping up so far, I definately have some concerns.Wyrmshadows</blockquote>

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