New Design: Wizards...

[Thornir Alekeg]

With this new information I was re-reading some of the playtesting reports. So, we have this about the staff:

The staff is best suited to powers that forcefully project powers from the wizard, such as lines of lightning and cones of fire; however, a staff also has resonances with effects related to flight and telekinesis (pushing, pulling, or sliding creatures or objects).

and then there is this from the Tomb Under the Tor playtest report:

So they created a mostly human party of 1st level PCs who are all affiliated with a local count.

snip...

Sasha used a wizard strike with her staff, not only injuring a wolf, but also pushing it away from the prone Heron.

snip...

Sasha maneuvered to blast both wolves with another strike from her staff, pushing the one attacking Heron away again.

From this it sounds like a wizard using a staff will be able to strike a foe with an arcane attack that can affect more than one foe and have a bull rush effect - and this is for first level PCs. If this is the "at will" ability, possible since it was used twice in one encounter, I can see why they would be saying you won't see the wizard pulling out a crossbow anymore.

It does make me wonder how this will scale at higher levels.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I do, don't you think a seasoned adventurer would have a slightly better chance at avoiding injury than the 1st level baker who just took up adventuring?

If both were unarmed and had the same dexterity, not really, no. That's just my view though, I can understand yours too. I'm happy with hitpoint abstraction to explain why a cat wouldn't kill the seasoned adventurer

 

[fuindordm]

Huh? It sounds like it's all about where the point of origin of the spell's effect is. A cone of fire's point of origin is the tip of your staff. A lightning bolt's point of origin is the tip of your staff. A flamestrike's point of origin is...somewhere up in the heavens, over there. See the difference?

-Will

From a design standpoint, this simply ensures that both wand and staff wizards will have access to some blasting spells.

If they all came from wands, then 95% of characters would have wands, so you might as well not have wands at all. This way you get an interesting choice--do you want your blasting spells to be linked to RAW POWER (TK, flight) or to defense and counterspelling?

It's vaguely analogous to the choice faced by fighters between a 2H weapon and a finesse weapon.

 

[sidonunspa]

You can tell me, but I don't believe you, and this is where I stop reading your post.

Ahhh I would love to live in a world where experience equals nothing... care to let me in?

Now if you can give me a solid counter points, you may be able to sway me to your side.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Ahhh I would love to live in a world where experience equals nothing

I have experience too (18 years worth), but I don't preface my posts with a self congratulatory statement to try to give my opinions more weight.

 

[F4NBOY]

Because after running a living campaign with thousands of players, running over 100 RPGA tables over the last few years and running 5 home games...

Santa Claus just told me 4E will be great. I'd rather trust him.

 

[Rugger]

Just a thought, but perhaps the +6 wands and such are NOT items, and more of a class feature.

It could be that a wizard attunes himself to the appropriate item, and then prioritizes their potency: Lvl 1 lets them pick one at +1, and then going forward, the others start to fall into place, so that by 10 lvl or so, the Wizard will have a +4 focus, +3 focus, +2 focus and a +1 focus? This could also be how Specialist Wizards work...

THEN they can find/craft magic versions that do other stuff (functioning like Runestaffs in MiC or Metamagic rods...)

Just an idea.

-Matt

 

[Baby Samurai]

If both were unarmed and had the same dexterity, not really, no.

So you really don't think that experience/training in combat would give you an edge, just what you were born with (ability scores)?

 

[Kaffis]

On first reading, I found it slightly difficult to wrap my mind around the idea of a wizard lugging a great big book or a palantir-sized crystal ball around a dungeon, but after a little thought, I figured an adventuring wizard could make his "orb" into an amulet (as Mouseferatu suggested), and his "tome" into scrolls (or maybe cards, to modify Exen Trik's idea a little).

I also see this as potential to reinforce the notion that wizards like to hole up in their towers. Sure, you can tote around a +3 amulet as your orb, but to do the real heavy lifting scrying, you want to head home and use your +12 palantir.

 

[wgreen]

So you really don't think that experience/training in combat would give you an edge, just what you were born with (ability scores)?

It does. Hit points, man, hit points. It's not just meat.

-Will