Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
Ummm... no problem... 
An all-mage party
- Thread starter STARP_Social_Officer
- Start date
Li Shenron
Legend
STARP_Social_Officer said:
I don't think I've been in such a party, but I have been in a party where everyone was a spellcaster (incl. divine) which is not that different.
I think that the only problem comes if all spellcasters rely on their spells only, which is what very often happens with Wizards and Sorcerers but happens only sometimes with other spellcasters. The problem is with melee combat, if all the PCs are physically weak and want to fight/cast from range. But in your case, assuming that at least some of them is capable of engaging in melee, it should work fine.
I don't know what's your purpose, but maybe allowing Druids along the arcane classes could make things easier.
zypherillius
First Post
cool concept
i dont dm much, but ive often wondered how it would balance out.
as the one guy said, it would be tough to balance with everybody on initative throwing lightning bolts and fireballs. the only way you could counteract that would be with insane fighters or rogues with lots of improved evasion and the like, but that would turn into a total party kill, once the wizards were in melee, its eog.
a fun enounter for them would be an ogre mage or things that are good at both fighting and casting, spellgaunts, spellstitched, mind flayers, the like.
or refocus the campaign into a thinking one, where all your mages have to use more of their intellect to overcome traps, or sway a political party, something were experience would be given on avoiding situations, not blowing your way out of it.
if it turns into a hack and slash campaign where youre throwing magic users at them, the one thats most likely to survive is the one thats got levels of rogue, or takes the martial rogue variant, so he gets rediculous fighter feats and progresses as a rogue, and has the feat spellfire. that might be a pretty rediculous character to play against as a dm.
i know rogue/death knights are crooked, its pretty wicked when they improved evade all your delay blast fireballs, that makes a d4 hit dice fighter pretty fast :-/
i dont dm much, but ive often wondered how it would balance out.
as the one guy said, it would be tough to balance with everybody on initative throwing lightning bolts and fireballs. the only way you could counteract that would be with insane fighters or rogues with lots of improved evasion and the like, but that would turn into a total party kill, once the wizards were in melee, its eog.
a fun enounter for them would be an ogre mage or things that are good at both fighting and casting, spellgaunts, spellstitched, mind flayers, the like.
or refocus the campaign into a thinking one, where all your mages have to use more of their intellect to overcome traps, or sway a political party, something were experience would be given on avoiding situations, not blowing your way out of it.
if it turns into a hack and slash campaign where youre throwing magic users at them, the one thats most likely to survive is the one thats got levels of rogue, or takes the martial rogue variant, so he gets rediculous fighter feats and progresses as a rogue, and has the feat spellfire. that might be a pretty rediculous character to play against as a dm.
i know rogue/death knights are crooked, its pretty wicked when they improved evade all your delay blast fireballs, that makes a d4 hit dice fighter pretty fast :-/
zypherillius
First Post
spellfire is wicked
no problem, i think spellfire is always a wicked feat to take, and its even better where they errated it to not be taken at first level, i believe.
but if it has to be taken at first level, run a human wizard with able learner and spellfire. that way all cross class skills cost one to one instead of two to one, and you can absorb all spells targeted at you
crooked a bit?
genshou said:Ooooh, spellfire would be scary in a game like that! Thanks for the idea.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
no problem, i think spellfire is always a wicked feat to take, and its even better where they errated it to not be taken at first level, i believe.
but if it has to be taken at first level, run a human wizard with able learner and spellfire. that way all cross class skills cost one to one instead of two to one, and you can absorb all spells targeted at you
crooked a bit?
I had a group try all mages back in the 2E days. They were all pure wizards (no multiclass) and things were very very tough until they reached level 5 where they had access to monster summoning and of course Fireball.I'm thinking in 3.5 E they would have a little easier go of it since Monster summoning is accessable at lvl 1...and they have more that that one spell/day. Still the players would have to play it careful and smart in order to survive to the levels where it's easier to get by.
Two wizards and a sorceror (and later a rogue)
My current Forgotten Realms campaign began with an elven wizard, a hathran (FR) wizard, and a human sorceror. From first to fourth level, their respective familiars provided the front line of defense. Anticipating combat problems, I fudged and allowed the group to use high grade dogs as familiars (from Claudio Pozas' Good Boy! writeup about dogs as pets and familiars). There were some close calls for caster and familiar alike, but the higher grade dogs served their purpose and kept the casters alive.
At the mid-levels (5-9), ranged and energy spells began to dominate. The dog familiars continued to play an active role in the delivery of touch spells and scouting. Defense spells were applied equally to caster and familiar in order for them to perform separate activities. The rogue joined at the latter end of this range as a stealth rogue.
Two real years later, the group average level is 12th and only one of the original dog familiars remains. Because encounters at this level can be lethal, the dog must remain faithfully at the camp or at the very rear of the group. The stealth rogue became the combat juggernaut for the group.
I guess the point of this little ramble is make sure that the combat is covered by something NPC that will not take the limelight away from the PC casters. The dogs helped sufficiently with the search, spot, and listen checks, and I avoided introducing complex traps and locks until the rogue joined. Healing was provided by itinerant clerics, potions and updated armor of healing (from an old Dragon issue).
My current Forgotten Realms campaign began with an elven wizard, a hathran (FR) wizard, and a human sorceror. From first to fourth level, their respective familiars provided the front line of defense. Anticipating combat problems, I fudged and allowed the group to use high grade dogs as familiars (from Claudio Pozas' Good Boy! writeup about dogs as pets and familiars). There were some close calls for caster and familiar alike, but the higher grade dogs served their purpose and kept the casters alive.
At the mid-levels (5-9), ranged and energy spells began to dominate. The dog familiars continued to play an active role in the delivery of touch spells and scouting. Defense spells were applied equally to caster and familiar in order for them to perform separate activities. The rogue joined at the latter end of this range as a stealth rogue.
Two real years later, the group average level is 12th and only one of the original dog familiars remains. Because encounters at this level can be lethal, the dog must remain faithfully at the camp or at the very rear of the group. The stealth rogue became the combat juggernaut for the group.
I guess the point of this little ramble is make sure that the combat is covered by something NPC that will not take the limelight away from the PC casters. The dogs helped sufficiently with the search, spot, and listen checks, and I avoided introducing complex traps and locks until the rogue joined. Healing was provided by itinerant clerics, potions and updated armor of healing (from an old Dragon issue).
Am I the only one who was thinking that "all characters have half their levels as arcane casters" doesn't have to be anything close to "all wizards"? I mean, there are lots of core classes that are arcane casters, even just looking at WotC stuff...
Fighter/mage-ish classes
Hexblade (CWar)
Duskblade (PHB2)
Rogue/mage-ish classes
Spellthief (CAdv)
Beguiler (PHB2)
Bard (PHB)
Cleric/mage-ish class
Dread Necromancer (HoH) [for undead stuff]
Bard (PHB) [for healing & support magic]
Mage classes
Wizard (PHB)
-Specialist Wizards (PHB/Unearthed Arcana for more specialized versions)
Sorcerer (PHB)
Warmage (CArc)
Wu Jen (CArc)
And there are a fair number of PrCs out their pretty much designed to make caster/X multiclassing easier.
So a five-person party should be able to get most roles covered acceptably well, especially figuring that the combat role of the fighter/mage types is really just to stall the bad guys until the blaster mages can finish them off. Healing's a little problematic, but between Bards, the Arcane Disciple feat, and multiclassing should be able to cover it.
Fighter/mage-ish classes
Hexblade (CWar)
Duskblade (PHB2)
Rogue/mage-ish classes
Spellthief (CAdv)
Beguiler (PHB2)
Bard (PHB)
Cleric/mage-ish class
Dread Necromancer (HoH) [for undead stuff]
Bard (PHB) [for healing & support magic]
Mage classes
Wizard (PHB)
-Specialist Wizards (PHB/Unearthed Arcana for more specialized versions)
Sorcerer (PHB)
Warmage (CArc)
Wu Jen (CArc)
And there are a fair number of PrCs out their pretty much designed to make caster/X multiclassing easier.
So a five-person party should be able to get most roles covered acceptably well, especially figuring that the combat role of the fighter/mage types is really just to stall the bad guys until the blaster mages can finish them off. Healing's a little problematic, but between Bards, the Arcane Disciple feat, and multiclassing should be able to cover it.
Drowbane
First Post
airwalkrr said:I have only one thing to say to this thread: "Four white mages? It'll never work."
back in 91 I came across that particular Nintendo Power at the library and decided to give it a shot... its difficult, but be done. You have to pick your fights wisely. Once you start picking up the Combat Items (Gauntlets, Spellbinder, Healing Staff, Healing Helm, Thor's Hammer, etc, etc) things get alot easier.
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