More about wizards by kunadam

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Ugh :\ Does most powerful in game mean that they're stronger than the fighter's daily powers? If that is the case, this is the first thing I don't like :/

Nah, sounds balanceable to me. Remember, the wizard "at will" powers are weaker than the fighters' (normal attacks being a fighter's "at-will" ability), and it may well be that the fighter "per day" stuff is more along the lines of the barbarian's Rage - synergistic effects rather than powerful one-hit abilities.

 

[Rechan]

Ugh Does most powerful in game mean that they're stronger than the fighter's daily powers? If that is the case, this is the first thing I don't like :/

Here's an example of a per-day ability of the wizard:

On my next round I saw several bad guys lined up in a row, so Karhun dashed a few squares over and used another wizard ability—my once-per-day scorch, a powerful fire attack. Karhun blasted two mummies and a hapless vampire minion for a pile of fire damage.

What the article meant by a wizard's at will power being on par with a fighter's attack means that 'a wizard's at-will ability will be on par with a fighter swinging his sword'. Sort've like how a warlock's Eldrich Blast is on par with a fighter's sword swinging.

A wizard's per day ability is going ot be on par with a fighter's - the per day ability is meant to be straight up Spells as we know them.

 

[Banshee16]

I absolutely love this. Nothing is invincible. There is no infinite power in the D&D universe. Only large finite powers that can be defeated if you can somehow amass a greater power.

Very Moorcockian.

Very Stephen Erikson (Malazan) as well. I'm on the fence about it. Not keen on PCs killing gods.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

I'm looking for spellcasters that don't wake up one day a summoner, the next day casting all illusions, and the next casting all blasting. I understand the desire to be a generalist, but being a generalist doesn't mean you should be able to do a little of everything.

Like what they said in the last podcast, the problem is that the Wizard is supposed to be able to do everything, and so it ties their hands when they're trying to carve out his niche in the game.

The one suggestion I haven't heard on these boards is whether the new wizard might end up looking more like the the Shadowcaster from the Tome of Magic. You know...you get certain "slots" as a character. You can spread them out into a whole whack of different abilities, or focus those "slots" onto a specific, limited set of abilities, which in turn means you're more focused, with less flexibility, but the things you can do are more powerful. This could work with those traditions, for instance. And could fit with the whole idea of per day, per encounter abilities, etc.

Still really unsure about it though. I don't like *at all* that a wizard is starting to become basically an evoker/illusionist. I can understand that it's probably inspired by the Mage class from WoW, but I really didn't like that kind of limited magic-user there either. Did it ever get boring after a short while!

Hopefully stuff like Stoneskin, Grease, Web, Scry, Contingency, Polymorph, Time Stop, Mending, Telekinesis etc. haven't all be excised from the game...

Banshee

 

[Rechan]

Still really unsure about it though. I don't like *at all* that a wizard is starting to become basically an evoker/illusionist.

They can do divinations and such with rituals, from the sounds of it.

Also, they're not JUST blasting. They'll be doing buffing, and the Orb sounds like it does a lot of conjuration (Walls, fogs, grease, etc; effecting large areas without specifically doing damage).

 

[WhatGravitas]

Ugh :\ Does most powerful in game mean that they're stronger than the fighter's daily powers? If that is the case, this is the first thing I don't like :/

It probably means that spells are more powerful than a fighter's per-day ability - but I think that's pretty important. If a wizard's per-day ability would be as powerful as a fighter's per-day ability... then the wizard would rather be a fighter-sans-flavour.

It's the wizard's shtick to be focused on powerful, reality-bending effects. In contrast, they have weaker at-will stuff and will probably be wimpy and hardly armoured (without the right feats).

It sounds right that the wizard has the most powerful abilities (albeit very limited) - as long as they are not game-breaking as now.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Geoffrey]

Not only is slaying gods Moorcockian, but so is "Wizards spell failure due to armor is gone (hurray!). Picking the right feats wizards can go around in heavy armor" (think Elric).

I'm all in favor of slaying gods.

I'm all in favor of wizards in armor.

It's very UN-Moorcockian, though, to essentially strip out all the spells that summon extra-planar beings.

 

[Rechan]

It probably means that spells are more powerful than a fighter's per-day ability - but I think that's pretty important. If a wizard's per-day ability would be as powerful as a fighter's per-day ability... then the wizard would rather be a fighter-sans-flavour.

More like a fighter's per day ability was bumped up to be on par with a wizard's.

It's the wizard's shtick to be focused on powerful, reality-bending effects.

Reality bending? Like what?

Seriously, wizards are great at blowing stuff up, but when it comes down to bending reality over and spanking it, no body seems to do it.

I consider Reality Bending like, say, "I cast a spell. It's now sunup."

 

[Gloombunny]

It would be pretty weird of WotC to declare that wizards are controllers and then take away all the battlefield-control spells like grease, web, stinking cloud, black tentacles, wall of stone, acid fog, etc... so I think conjuration other than summons is pretty safe.

 

[Rechan]

It would be pretty weird of WotC to declare that wizards are controllers and then take away all the battlefield-control spells like grease, web, stinking cloud, black tentacles, wall of stone, acid fog, etc... so I think conjuration other than summons is pretty safe.

They said summoning. As in 'Summon X'. They didn't say Conjuration.

I am certain that there will be stinking cloud, web, etc as Orb-specific powers.