Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
For many people, the wizard is just fine. This probably isn't the thread for you!
For some people, the wizard is lacking something (or several somethings). I don't want to get into a wholesale redesign of the class (although I think it could do with it - it should have a controllerish class feature just like all the other classes have a role-providing class feature. It also should have more powers which could benefit from a secondary ability of the various builds (wis/dex/con)).
However, I think I might be able to do something to bring back some of the flavour of old wizards without being overpowering.
Improved Flexibility
Rather than the spellbook containing two of each utility and two of each daily from which the wizard can prepare whichever he wants after each extended rest - I'm going to allow the wizard to have 2 quantum utilities and 2 quantum dailies 'available' at each level as per normal - and it is at the point of use that he chooses which of them he wants to use.
e.g. if his 1st level dailies are Sleep and Acid Arrow, he can have either of them potentially available, and at the point where he decides to use his 1st level daily he can decide between Sleep and Acid Arrow, depending upon what seems most useful to him at the time.
This doesn't work with utility encounter powers.
Better Fireball
Fireball just sucks at everything. It isn't even good at minion clearing. The 3rd level encounter attack Fire Shroud will do more damage in the same area without hurting friends (just doesn't have the long range).
My proposed fix is that Fireball adds the line
Effect: ongoing 5 fire damage.
This boosts the damage, lets THE archetypal spell have some extra welly to it and allows it to be a big minion clearer which it fails to do at the moment compared to, say, Stinking Cloud. Average damage over the course of an encounter is still going to be way below Stinking Cloud in most cases, but at least the wizard will feel that it is worth taking, that it will last more than just a fraction of a round.
Cheers
For some people, the wizard is lacking something (or several somethings). I don't want to get into a wholesale redesign of the class (although I think it could do with it - it should have a controllerish class feature just like all the other classes have a role-providing class feature. It also should have more powers which could benefit from a secondary ability of the various builds (wis/dex/con)).
However, I think I might be able to do something to bring back some of the flavour of old wizards without being overpowering.
Improved Flexibility
Rather than the spellbook containing two of each utility and two of each daily from which the wizard can prepare whichever he wants after each extended rest - I'm going to allow the wizard to have 2 quantum utilities and 2 quantum dailies 'available' at each level as per normal - and it is at the point of use that he chooses which of them he wants to use.
e.g. if his 1st level dailies are Sleep and Acid Arrow, he can have either of them potentially available, and at the point where he decides to use his 1st level daily he can decide between Sleep and Acid Arrow, depending upon what seems most useful to him at the time.
This doesn't work with utility encounter powers.
Better Fireball
Fireball just sucks at everything. It isn't even good at minion clearing. The 3rd level encounter attack Fire Shroud will do more damage in the same area without hurting friends (just doesn't have the long range).
My proposed fix is that Fireball adds the line
Effect: ongoing 5 fire damage.
This boosts the damage, lets THE archetypal spell have some extra welly to it and allows it to be a big minion clearer which it fails to do at the moment compared to, say, Stinking Cloud. Average damage over the course of an encounter is still going to be way below Stinking Cloud in most cases, but at least the wizard will feel that it is worth taking, that it will last more than just a fraction of a round.
Cheers