Complete Arcane advance info?

[the Jester]

I was wondering if "Geometer" is a misheard name for a revision of the "Geomancer", or is the latter already published?

The geomancer reappears in Complete Divine iirc.

In the 2.8 days (the so-called Players Option era) there was a wizard specialist type called the geometer- basically, it used circles and diagrams and scrolls; magical writing type of stuff. I like the idea of its return, though I never saw anyone play one in 2.8.

 

[Xath]

Even Song and Silence was weak on the Bard Prestige classes, at least one that a melded well with players who are not just using a bard that is a means to an end. War Chanter wasent bad but I too would like to see more bard P-classes. their's all kind of sneaky rogue like classes, but few that are good for bards. The Virtuoso (sp) ... well... I cant help but wonder what bard 'wouldent' take that class once they qualified unless you just dident like the theme.

It appears however, and some of you may have noticed this, but their have been a large number of 'bardic music' related feats latly. I'm not sure if Eberron was the catylist or if their were just many things already in the pipe line. But it seems like (and I may be wrong) that Eberron was one of the first places to have Alternate/New Bardic music abilities. Libris Mortis has a few of its own as well. All these 'few' however are becoming quite a number of choices, Almost makes me which their was a Prestige Class based around gaining 'Bardic Music based feats'.

I agree, Song and Silence really did shaft the Bards on the prestige class variety. However, just looked in the new Planar Handbook, and there are several BM feats. Metamagic Song could be really cool.

However, I still think that 90% of the bard PrC's out there are essentially the same thing with a different name. I look foreward to the day when a Wizard/Loremaster can't do everything better than the bard...stupid LoreMasters...

 

[Li Shenron]

The geomancer reappears in Complete Divine iirc.

In the 2.8 days (the so-called Players Option era) there was a wizard specialist type called the geometer- basically, it used circles and diagrams and scrolls; magical writing type of stuff. I like the idea of its return, though I never saw anyone play one in 2.8.

Ah, I haven't seen CD at all yet. The geometer idea sounds intriguing, although the name could have been a little better

 

[kilamanjaro]

I got this quote from Rich Baker, designer of Complete Arcane, over on the WotC boards.
"Arcane has the warlock, warmage, and wu jen.
Adventurer has the spell thief (and a couple of others I don't know if I can tell you about yet).

The warlock is a "spellcasting" character that works on spell-like abilities. He's even more specialized/focused than the sorcerer, but there's basically no limit to the number of times per day he can do his thing. (Basically, we have a notion here in R&D that your character is going to get 10-20 actions per day, so your 21st, 22nd, etc., spell memorized just doesn't matter very much for combat power. The warlock doesn't really have infinite spells compared to the wizard because they both get the same number of actions per day of adventuring.) Oh, and the warlock just oozes spawn-of-the-dark-powers flavor. It's a lot of fun."

 

[Ashanderai]

I got this quote from Rich Baker, designer of Complete Arcane, over on the WotC boards.
"Arcane has the warlock, warmage, and wu jen.
Adventurer has the spell thief (and a couple of others I don't know if I can tell you about yet).

The WotC webpage description of the Complete Adventurer states that the other two core classes are the scout and the ninja.

 

[jmucchiello]

It appears however, and some of you may have noticed this, but their have been a large number of 'bardic music' related feats latly. I'm not sure if Eberron was the catylist or if their were just many things already in the pipe line.

There are countless 3rd party products with such feats (including both of my books). WotC has just not had any support for the poor bard.

 

[The_Universe]

With the Complete Arcane, I'm just hoping to find some sort of decent bard PrC. Please.

I think the problem is that Bards aren't meant to be prestiged - you can't get any more "Jack of all trades but master of none" than "Jack of all trades but master of none."

I think a lot of designers shy away from bard prestige classes, because if the player in question was interested in specialization, they had no business playing a bard in the first place....

Just IMHO, of course.

 

[Chun-tzu]

I was wondering if "Geometer" is a misheard name for a revision of the "Geomancer", or is the latter already published?

I may be confusing this Geometer with something I may have read or heard about in a d20 book, but IIRC the Geometer PrC has abilities related to ley lines (aka geometry).

 

[JoeGKushner]

Even Song and Silence was weak on the Bard Prestige classes, at least one that a melded well with players who are not just using a bard that is a means to an end. War Chanter wasent bad but I too would like to see more bard P-classes. their's all kind of sneaky rogue like classes, but few that are good for bards. The Virtuoso (sp) ... well... I cant help but wonder what bard 'wouldent' take that class once they qualified unless you just dident like the theme.

For unique bard takes, my favorite book is still probably the 2nd Edition Complete Bard. They had several kits that would make great PrCs for 3rd edition and I'm surprised that they haven't made it over yet. The Gallant, the Blade Spinner and others are still just off the top of my head.

 

[Perun]

In the 2.8 days (the so-called Players Option era) there was a wizard specialist type called the geometer- basically, it used circles and diagrams and scrolls; magical writing type of stuff. I like the idea of its return, though I never saw anyone play one in 2.8.

I almost completely forgot about the PO geometers! I loved to play them. All of their spells had somatic components (tracing the glowing geometrical shapes and runes in the air), but they didn't have any verbal components to compensate. And the artificer (was that the name?) and the song mage were following the same ideas (all artificer spell had material components, and didn't have verbal ones, and song mage's had verbal, but not somatic, or somesuch )

Yes, I really liked Spells & Magic Didn't care for Skills & Powers or Combat & Tactics, though.