Balancing the warlock vs. the wizard

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm preparing to convert my campaign from 3E to C&C, but we've got a few 3Eisms I need to convert to do so, including a character who asked, about midway through our 3E leg of our eight-year campaign, to convert his wizard into a warlock. Now, he'll likely be turned back into a wizard in C&C, but I want to preserve as many warlock bits as possible, as custom abilities and spells.

Let's start with the most basic, eldritch blast. My first thought is to make it an alternate wizard ability, where eldritch blast is a ranged attack that does 1d4 damage equal to the maximum spell level the wizard can cast. (So a level 1 wizard with this ability could do 1d4 points of damage at will, while a level 3 wizard would do 2d4 and a level 18 wizard would do 9d4.) Although that's knocked down a die from the best wizard spells they can cast at that level, that's still pretty damned sweet, so for cost, I'm thinking it should cost one spell slot of each level of spell the wizard could cast.

Does that seem balanced as a 3E warlock to wizard conversion?

Thanks for your help. (Some of the trickier invocations will need to be converted later.)

 

[TwoSix]

I'm preparing to convert my campaign from 3E to C&C, but we've got a few 3Eisms I need to convert to do so, including a character who asked, about midway through our 3E leg of our eight-year campaign, to convert his wizard into a warlock. Now, he'll likely be turned back into a wizard in C&C, but I want to preserve as many warlock bits as possible, as custom abilities and spells.

Let's start with the most basic, eldritch blast. My first thought is to make it an alternate wizard ability, where eldritch blast is a ranged attack that does 1d4 damage equal to the maximum spell level the wizard can cast. (So a level 1 wizard with this ability could do 1d4 points of damage at will, while a level 3 wizard would do 2d4 and a level 18 wizard would do 9d4.) Although that's knocked down a die from the best wizard spells they can cast at that level, that's still pretty damned sweet, so for cost, I'm thinking it should cost one spell slot of each level of spell the wizard could cast.

Does that seem balanced as a 3E warlock to wizard conversion?

Thanks for your help. (Some of the trickier invocations will need to be converted later.)

Well, for 1 feat, a wizard can get a 5 ft radius blast of fire for Xd6 (Reflex half), where X is the highest level of fire spell currently memorized. So 1 feat + one high level spell slot in reserve. I'd say an Xd4 ranged touch of non-elemental damage is probably one prepared slot the highest level.

 

[Dandu]

I'm preparing to convert my campaign from 3E to C&C, but we've got a few 3Eisms I need to convert to do so, including a character who asked, about midway through our 3E leg of our eight-year campaign, to convert his wizard into a warlock. Now, he'll likely be turned back into a wizard in C&C, but I want to preserve as many warlock bits as possible, as custom abilities and spells.

Let's start with the most basic, eldritch blast. My first thought is to make it an alternate wizard ability, where eldritch blast is a ranged attack that does 1d4 damage equal to the maximum spell level the wizard can cast. (So a level 1 wizard with this ability could do 1d4 points of damage at will, while a level 3 wizard would do 2d4 and a level 18 wizard would do 9d4.) Although that's knocked down a die from the best wizard spells they can cast at that level, that's still pretty damned sweet, so for cost, I'm thinking it should cost one spell slot of each level of spell the wizard could cast.

Does that seem balanced as a 3E warlock to wizard conversion?

Thanks for your help. (Some of the trickier invocations will need to be converted later.)

Acid Splatter