For former Wizard fans stuck playing 4e...(Forked)

[Plane Sailing]

Oh, one other thing...

for some spells, I would allow a wizard to alter the type of damage a spell does when they first choose a power, that way if they want to theme their character around a certain type of energy, say lightning, they suddenly have spells to choose from.

So if a spell normally does fire or cold, they can choose instead for it to do lightning. Once they choose that, it stays that way, no switching back and forth, but it does give them a bit more choice.

I can see a couple of potential issues with that:

1. WotC have made more of an effort to give specific themes to energy effects now (e.g. fire and acid are likely to do ongoing damage, thunder might push people, cold might slow or immobilise them). Pulling an energy switcheroo would get in the way of that.

2. Wizards have quite a distinct balance of spells - lots of fire and cold, some lightning and force, only a couple of acid, necrotic, psychic and radiant for instance. If a wizard makes all his things psychic damage, or radiant damage, he'll be facing a lot less resistances and will be treading on the toes of other classes (warlock for psychic/necrotic, clerics/paladins for radiant).

These might not be an issue, but are worth considering.

Cheers

 

[Drkfathr1]

Yeah, I thought about that, but honestly, if a player really wants to shoot acid balls and lightning bursts instead of being locked into a neverending cycle of fire or ice, I figure what the hey!

And the fact that they could end up pigeon-holing themselves when it comes to resistances will be lesson learned on their part.

 

[Kraydak]

One thing that might help is to massively (utterly massively) boost rituals.

Divide the casting time/cost by 10 and boost the duration (if relevant, the scrying rituals badly need it) by 10ish. Then make sure most/all NPC caster types have ritual books, and scour supplements for more rituals. Drop some rituals down a few levels too. If he has favorite out of combat spells that aren't in the ritual list, write them up as rituals.

WotC went to a whole lot of (unneeded) effort to utterly neuter the rituals. There is a large amount of boosting to them that can be done before you'd run into real balance problems.

Feats for spellbooks for at-wills/encounters wouldn't be a major problem (short rest to use). Adding identification friend/foe for cheap will need to happen at some point if future controllers get it for free (as appears to be the trend).

 

[Drkfathr1]

Yes, more rituals, and hey do need some help. Casting times definately need to be adjusted, as do prices. The economy of 4E with its treasure parcels really limits what PC's can do if you adhere to it. (but that's a topic for other threads)

I was thinking that some kind of feat similar to the old Spell Mastery that would allow a Wiz to choose a number of rituals = to their Int bonus that they could cast without the normal cost. Just not sure how I want to do that yet. I don't want to make them totally free, but I want them to be useable much more often.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah, you can't nuke the world in combat any more, but use your cantrips right, and you won't miss it.

Color me skeptical- if your idea of a good time is going out to the firing range with a Civil War era Gatling Gun and firing off a few thousand rounds, being forced to trade that in for a Derringer won't give you the same rush.

It might still be fun, sure, but to say that you won't miss the way things used to be is stretching things a bit.

 

[Halivar]

We implemented a spontaneous casting house-rule. When you want to cast a daily spell, pull out your spellbook and pick one. This, combined with the Expanded Spellbook feat, makes wizards pretty über and utilitarian. I would go so far as to say that, for my wizard and my DM's wizard (in the off-game I DM), the utility level has increased from 3.5 because of the inexhaustibility of encounter powers, at-will powers and cantrips.

Now, if it's the tactical nuke spells that you're missing, this won't help you.

 

[SHARK]

Color me skeptical- if your idea of a good time is going out to the firing range with a Civil War era Gatling Gun and firing off a few thousand rounds, being forced to trade that in for a Derringer won't give you the same rush.

It might still be fun, sure, but to say that you won't miss the way things used to be is stretching things a bit.

Greetings!

*LOL*!!! PURE WIN, my friend!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[LostSoul]

Color me skeptical- if your idea of a good time is going out to the firing range with a Civil War era Gatling Gun and firing off a few thousand rounds, being forced to trade that in for a Derringer won't give you the same rush.

It might still be fun, sure, but to say that you won't miss the way things used to be is stretching things a bit.

Those who want the gatling gun will feel like something missing, this is true.

Those who want a swiss army knife won't feel that way if the DM follows the advice in the DMG. And every once in a while, the Wizard can pull out a grenade from that swiss army knife.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Color me skeptical- if your idea of a good time is going out to the firing range with a Civil War era Gatling Gun and firing off a few thousand rounds, being forced to trade that in for a Derringer won't give you the same rush.

It might still be fun, sure, but to say that you won't miss the way things used to be is stretching things a bit.

Depends on what the goal is, I suppose.

If you want "thing the same way as the last time", then yes, you'll be disappointed, but....just go play 3.5. It's not gone.

If the goal is "play as a magical and mysterious dude", well, I think 4e Wizard does the job quite well, and actively encourages roleplaying. I'd happily trade spell slots and some combat effectiveness for better feel.

I'm sure it's been pointed out already, but if you look at the number of Daily spells a wizard can cast in a day over levels 1-30, it's actually *more* like Jack Vance than 3.5.

 

[Ahglock]

Those who want the gatling gun will feel like something missing, this is true.

Those who want a swiss army knife won't feel that way if the DM follows the advice in the DMG. And every once in a while, the Wizard can pull out a grenade from that swiss army knife.

If a DM follows the advice in the DMG the vast majority of examples of why cantrips are cool that I've seen on this board would not be allowed.

I think a lot of the wizards appeal was lost in that they over killed utility spells so they would not step on the toes of skills. Take levitate, yeah it could step on the toes of the climb skill in 3e. But in 4e, there are no levitate wands, there isn't a climb skill its athletics and it does a bunch of other things, your encounter powers are a much more limited resource than a spellbook in 3e, probably as limited a reosurce as skills, and then they go and make it a daily. Unless you are hell bent on gaining the power to float in air, no one will take it. Going from it steps on skills toes making skills useless to its totally useless itself is not a great trade.