Complete arcane excerpt discussion

[Greybar]

here

Green Star Adept
* To match the editing concerns, the given Green Star Adept PrC has a serious mismatch. Text says gain Spell/Day every even-numbered level, caster level every level, but the chart shows the generic +1 caster/spells every third level.
* Boy, talk about a class you probably won't want to take the 10th level in. I think you lose more than you gain there.

Arcane Feats:
* Practiced Spellcaster (from CD)
* Wand feats (shrug)
* Bonus for touch attacks that doesn't seem too valuable to first glance.

Spell Lists & items:
* Haven't gone through yet - what do you folks think?

 

[Klaus]

The bonus to touch attack damage has no reason to be limited to the first attack only.

New item formats seem nice, though. Crafting clay tablets instead of brewing potions and stuff...

 

[Zweischneid]

New item formats seem nice, though. Crafting clay tablets instead of brewing potions and stuff...

I've always allowed elven wizards to whittle their "scrolls" on wooden carvings or let halfling mystics bake muffins of cure minor wounds.

Lots of redundant rules for something that can easily be handled just in flavor.

 

[Chun-tzu]

Green Star Adept
* Boy, talk about a class you probably won't want to take the 10th level in. I think you lose more than you gain there.

I don't see what you're talking about. He gains some very powerful abilities as a construct: immunity to critical hits, death effects, and most spells that require a Fort save (which at high levels are save or die spells, and arcanists have low Fort saves). The only loss is some hit points, and only if he has a high Con (14+). Pretty nice trade-off.

The "can't be healed by cure spells" is more or less a wash. Since he can now heal himself through arcane spells, it's arguably an advantage, not a disadvantage.

Spell Lists & items:
* Haven't gone through yet - what do you folks think?

The Warmage list has been expanded, which is interesting (although they've dropped Sleep from her first level spells). The Warmage class takes the concept of the artillery sorcerer and runs with it. The Warmage is a spontaneous caster with Cha as the primary attribute, just like the Sorcerer. The Warmage gets a lot more known spells, though, and gains them as soon as she's high enough level. The only trade-off is that the Warmage gets offensive spells only (no defensive magic, and not even staples like detect magic, dispel magic, fly, teleport).

Some say that the Psion makes a better blaster than the Sorcerer now. I'd say the Warmage has taken that title from both of them.

 

[TheDeuce]

I've always allowed elven wizards to whittle their "scrolls" on wooden carvings or let halfling mystics bake muffins of cure minor wounds.

Lots of redundant rules for something that can easily be handled just in flavor.

Awesome. So simple I didn't even think about it.

Gotta love the " Litttle Changes with big flavor" concept.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I don't see what you're talking about. He gains some very powerful abilities as a construct: immunity to critical hits, death effects, and most spells that require a Fort save (which at high levels are save or die spells, and arcanists have low Fort saves). The only loss is some hit points, and only if he has a high Con (14+). Pretty nice trade-off.

The "can't be healed by cure spells" is more or less a wash. Since he can now heal himself through arcane spells, it's arguably an advantage, not a disadvantage.

If you've got a high Con you lose hitpoints, but considering this isn't really geared toward fighter types, it's not a big problem.

5th-Level Druid Spell
Wood Rot: Destroy wooden items or deal 3d6 + 1/level damage (max +15) to plant creatures.

I thought of this one is like 9th grade.

Unluck: Target remakes all rolls, uses worse result for 1 round/level.

It's reroll. Gonna wanna fix that.

NECRO Backbiter: Wooden-hafted weapon strikes wielder.

Not bad. Making your spear come alive and poke you in the arse!

ABJUR Anticipate Teleportation[F]: Predict and delay the arrival of creatures teleporting into range by 1 round.

Duelward: +4 on Spellcraft checks, counterspell as an immediate action.
Reciprocal Gyre: Creature or object takes 1d6 damage/level of spell affecting it (max 25d6).
Refusal: Spellcasters and creatures with spell-like abilities are prevented from entering an area.
NECRO Spiritwall: Wall of spirit-forms causes panic, deals 1d10 damage if touched, can bestow negative levels if passed through.
Freezing Fog: Fog slows creatures, obscures vision, hinders movement.
Servant Horde: Create 2d6 unseen servants +1/level (max +15).
ENCH Transfix: Humanoids freeze in place until condition you specify is met.

All very useful or cool.

Macrame: A spell is held in a small, complex weave of precisely tied knots. The user pulls apart the knotted square by choosing the right strands while speaking the spell's activation words.

Perfect for my barbarian wizards who use quipus as spellbooks.

 

[Kesh]

The Wu Jen spell list, at a glance, appears identical to the one in Oriental Adventures. Only one difference jumped out at me, and that was altering a 0-level spell from 1d3 damage to 1d4 damage. A few of the brief descriptions are different, but it mostly seems to be rewording things for clarity rather than actual rules changes. And it does not appear to add Sorc/Wiz 3.5e spells that were added to the Wu Jen list in the Dragon magazine article, which is disappointing but not unexpected.

That said, I'm a bit upset at its inclusion here. With Wizards adding more and more of OA to published rulebooks in this series, my hopes of OA being added to the SRD are fading fast.

 

[Nightfall]

Maybe we'll get lucky and down the road in 2005, they'll change their feelings and add in new core classes as "options"

Just an idea.

 

[Greybar]

I don't see what you're talking about. He gains some very powerful abilities as a construct: immunity to critical hits, death effects, and most spells that require a Fort save (which at high levels are save or die spells, and arcanists have low Fort saves). The only loss is some hit points, and only if he has a high Con (14+). Pretty nice trade-off.

Well, perhaps in my expectation for the class = as a "gish" of fighter/mage. Who else would trade off spellpower for melee goodness? That kind of character, by level 15, should have Con14 or higher, if nothing else due to enhancing items or buffing spells (since they survived the first 14 levels). That means that the 20 hp for medium constructs is a loss.

Remember that the immunity at level 10 is only an incremental step up. He already has big big bonuses to all those effects, and 75% immunity to crits.

The "can't be healed by cure spells" is more or less a wash. Since he can now heal himself through arcane spells, it's arguably an advantage, not a disadvantage.

I disagree. I think it's a pretty big disadv. After all, if you're unconscious and dying, you don't want the only person to be able to heal you is... you. Better hand off a scroll/wand/etc of repair major to each of your friends!

If you're in solo play, then I agree that self-healing as an arcane caster could be very nice. Even better if you can spontanously cast repair spells in some way or another.

Also, for normal team play - if you're not being healed by the party healing specialist (aka cleric), then you're taking spells out of your list (and turns out of your combat rounds), when you could be arcane-striking the bad-guys out of existence.

Speaking of which, I'm guessing that arcane-strike is a real obvious one for the GSA. Get in there close and smack people down while their blows are dulled by that DR.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I disagree. I think it's a pretty big disadv. After all, if you're unconscious and dying, you don't want the only person to be able to heal you is... you. Better hand off a scroll/wand/etc of repair major to each of your friends!

Once he's reached the last part, he no longer is capable of becoming unconscious. Also he dies immediately at 0 hp, so noones gonna be helping him in that regard either.

Having access to healing spells means that he can contingent them... that's a pretty big bonus.