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Broad vs Narrow Classes
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8840535" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>I think understand what you are saying. What I'm getting is you are thinking "Broad" in terms of what the Wizard can do-- with such a large spell list, the Wizard can cast almost anything and thus be almost anything. And I don't disagree with that necessarily. But that appears to me to be coming from a mechanical expression, rather than a thematic one.</p><p></p><p>From a thematic expression I see the Wizard to be very constrained. The class is all about bookworms. Scientists. The smartypants who has to sit in their laboratory working out formulas to figure out how this magic stuff works, and then writing it all down in their spellbooks. And even their Subclasses don't actually change this identity, all they do is tell us what Major they took when they went to school (to incorporate a metaphor.)</p><p></p><p>From my perspective... for the Wizard to be Broad like the Fighter and Rogue... we would need to be able to name all manner of different types of magic-users and they should fit in nicely under the Wizard umbrella-- the same way we can name all these different thematic identities like Thief, Assassin, Mastermind, Swashbuckler, Inquisitive, Scout, etc. and they all fit under the umbrella of 'Rogue'. But if we start going through a lot of the different caster identities? The ones we already don't have full classes written up for? The thematics of the Wizard doesn't really fit them.</p><p></p><p>The Witch? We'd use a different class than Wizard.</p><p>The Shaman? Different class than Wizard.</p><p>The Psion? Nope.</p><p>The Summoner? Would depend entirely on the things being summoned-- Druid and Warlock also apply.</p><p>The Binder? Okay, possibly. But an argument could be made for the Warlock depending on what was being bound.</p><p></p><p>Now that being said... the Wizard DOES get used as the generic "Arcane spellcaster" archetype when it gets attached to other classes for multiclassing purposes (either subclassed like the EK / AT or actual multis.) But when that happens pretty much most of the thematic identity of who a Wizard is gets wiped away anyways. They are Fighters who use magic, or Rogues who use magic, or Monks who use magic... they are never really identified as Wizards who use weapons or sneaky Wizards, or Wizards who fight unarmed. Although let's be honest here... for both the EK and AT I think the Sorcerer-- the magic user who can just "do" magic without all the rigamarole of science and spellbooks and discovery and all that crap-- actually makes more sense as the class paired to the Fighter or Rogue as the way to gain magic when fighting. The magic-using warrior doesn't want to have to cart a spellbook around and study it every morning, they want to just sling spells when fighting with their weapons. And that's more the purview of the Sorcerer if you ask me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8840535, member: 7006"] I think understand what you are saying. What I'm getting is you are thinking "Broad" in terms of what the Wizard can do-- with such a large spell list, the Wizard can cast almost anything and thus be almost anything. And I don't disagree with that necessarily. But that appears to me to be coming from a mechanical expression, rather than a thematic one. From a thematic expression I see the Wizard to be very constrained. The class is all about bookworms. Scientists. The smartypants who has to sit in their laboratory working out formulas to figure out how this magic stuff works, and then writing it all down in their spellbooks. And even their Subclasses don't actually change this identity, all they do is tell us what Major they took when they went to school (to incorporate a metaphor.) From my perspective... for the Wizard to be Broad like the Fighter and Rogue... we would need to be able to name all manner of different types of magic-users and they should fit in nicely under the Wizard umbrella-- the same way we can name all these different thematic identities like Thief, Assassin, Mastermind, Swashbuckler, Inquisitive, Scout, etc. and they all fit under the umbrella of 'Rogue'. But if we start going through a lot of the different caster identities? The ones we already don't have full classes written up for? The thematics of the Wizard doesn't really fit them. The Witch? We'd use a different class than Wizard. The Shaman? Different class than Wizard. The Psion? Nope. The Summoner? Would depend entirely on the things being summoned-- Druid and Warlock also apply. The Binder? Okay, possibly. But an argument could be made for the Warlock depending on what was being bound. Now that being said... the Wizard DOES get used as the generic "Arcane spellcaster" archetype when it gets attached to other classes for multiclassing purposes (either subclassed like the EK / AT or actual multis.) But when that happens pretty much most of the thematic identity of who a Wizard is gets wiped away anyways. They are Fighters who use magic, or Rogues who use magic, or Monks who use magic... they are never really identified as Wizards who use weapons or sneaky Wizards, or Wizards who fight unarmed. Although let's be honest here... for both the EK and AT I think the Sorcerer-- the magic user who can just "do" magic without all the rigamarole of science and spellbooks and discovery and all that crap-- actually makes more sense as the class paired to the Fighter or Rogue as the way to gain magic when fighting. The magic-using warrior doesn't want to have to cart a spellbook around and study it every morning, they want to just sling spells when fighting with their weapons. And that's more the purview of the Sorcerer if you ask me. [/QUOTE]
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