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<blockquote data-quote="Kaos" data-source="post: 2472626" data-attributes="member: 10644">1) I do not like &quot;whim of the DM&quot; as the balancing factor in the baseline rules;&nbsp; too many sessions in environments without the &quot;DM is Absolute God&quot; meme have rendered it less than adequate.&nbsp; 2) Even accounting for &quot;it's magic,&quot; it simply does not make sense that it's fundamentally easier to conjure a fully formed 26hd aberration out of thin air, than to call up a lightning bolt for 1d6 damage.&nbsp; (In fact, traditional lightning bolts are BytheBook impossible - there's no 'line' effect.&nbsp; Touch, ranged touch, cone or spread.)&nbsp; This is not to say I don't appreciate the general idea, or the book itself.&nbsp; Everything else is either (subjectively) excellent or nearly so, IMO.&nbsp; When I do tweak it, I'll be watching the Evocations to make sure any risk of overshadowing the fighers is kept down.&nbsp; But as written, it's not just 'weaker than the fighters' - it's weaker than just using the Eldritch Dart aspect (thereby making it useless.)&nbsp; You forgot energy type and &quot;delivery method&quot; (ie targetting.)&nbsp; Minimum of adding 1 for fire and 1 for either a touch attack or a ray, resulting in a DC of 27.&nbsp; If you want to go to a cone, you can do 15' for 2 extra mana or 30' for 3... pushing the DC up to 29. Cold damage, plus ray attack:&nbsp; +4 for cold, +1 for ray = dc30.This compares to a DC 20 check to summon anything (barring DM fiat) with up to 30hd, a DC 25 check to cast Temporal Shell (equivelant to timestop) and have it benefit your entire party, or a dc25 check to&nbsp; enthrall 50 hostile creatures for a day.I certainly wouldn't say that the arcanist lacks power...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kaos, post: 2472626, member: 10644"] 1) I do not like "whim of the DM" as the balancing factor in the baseline rules; too many sessions in environments without the "DM is Absolute God" meme have rendered it less than adequate. 2) Even accounting for "it's magic," it simply does not make sense that it's fundamentally easier to conjure a fully formed 26hd aberration out of thin air, than to call up a lightning bolt for 1d6 damage. (In fact, traditional lightning bolts are BytheBook impossible - there's no 'line' effect. Touch, ranged touch, cone or spread.) This is not to say I don't appreciate the general idea, or the book itself. Everything else is either (subjectively) excellent or nearly so, IMO. When I do tweak it, I'll be watching the Evocations to make sure any risk of overshadowing the fighers is kept down. But as written, it's not just 'weaker than the fighters' - it's weaker than just using the Eldritch Dart aspect (thereby making it useless.) You forgot energy type and "delivery method" (ie targetting.) Minimum of adding 1 for fire and 1 for either a touch attack or a ray, resulting in a DC of 27. If you want to go to a cone, you can do 15' for 2 extra mana or 30' for 3... pushing the DC up to 29. Cold damage, plus ray attack: +4 for cold, +1 for ray = dc30. This compares to a DC 20 check to summon [b]anything[/b] (barring DM fiat) with up to 30hd, a DC 25 check to cast [i]Temporal Shell[/i] (equivelant to timestop) and have it benefit your entire party, or a dc25 check to enthrall 50 [b]hostile[/b] creatures for a day. I certainly wouldn't say that the arcanist lacks power... [/QUOTE]

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