New Design: Wizards...

[F4NBOY]

The f4anboys will love it anyway unconditionally, so I hope WotC throws the rest of us a bone here.

Don't make generalizations please. Putting a lot of people or just one person under a negative tag is not nice.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

I also can't help but notice that the new "schools" appear to be more like paired elemental descriptors -- this is the foreshadowing for a vastly cut down library of spells, guys.

(I'm actually positive about this change, mind you, and it makes sense to have the implements linked to offensive spells, if they're analogous to a fighter's weapons.)

I certainly hope they cut down the number of spells as well. How many different variations of "I hurt him with fire" are needed?

 

[nightspaladin]

I think it is much better to have discipline names than simply calling someone a transmuter, evoker, etc if that is indeed what they are doing.

The disciplines may be a mixture of different schools to different degrees. It will be far easier to create new disciplines than it was to create new speciality wizards( as that required you creating a new school of magic)

Also, these names may only be the generic "points of light" setting names. I suspect that FR and Eberron Campiagn books will include their own different traditions for wizards.

If these traditions are simply talent tree driven then it is extremely easy for them to just drop them into the existing class framework.

Also, maybe a wizard that has accessed all of the disciplines will be what we call an "archmage" in the future.... Just a nice nod to the past and a neat bit of fluff

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I certainly hope they cut down the number of spells as well. How many different variations of "I hurt him with fire" are needed?

I don't know. What color fire do you want it to be?

 

[breschau]

Most people recognize the three most common tools associated with wizardcraft: the orb, staff, and wand.

Just picked that up from the WotC board. It's a nice bit of wiggle room that.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I really wish people could get past the idea that names = organization. That is an assumption, & IMO a poor one. We don't expect Transmutation organizations in 3.xe just because Transmutation exists as a school of magic; I likewise see no reason to expect Serpent's Eye as an organization (as opposed to named tradition) in 4e.

I personally see no reason to think these aren't organization/tradition names, rather than a replacement for what we call "schools" in the current edition. In fact, to me they seem like samples (note that there is more than one listed for the various implements), and serve as examples of how a DM/player could design their own. This is *good* design, IMHO, as it opens up possibilities for players.

Maybe the 3.x "schools" and specialists are gone completely in the new edition, replaced by a more flexible "traditions" system.

 

[Mercule]

I am the servant of the Serpent Eye, wielder of the Orb of Shadows!
I am the servant of the Hidden Flame, wielder of the Staff of Hellfire!
I am the servant of the Iron Sigil, wielder of the Eye of Moradin!
I am the servant of the Emerald Frost, wielder of the Frozen Finger!
I am the servant of the Stormwalker, wielder of the Wand of Thunder!

I actually really like Iron Sigil. Hidden Flame and Serpent Eye are okay. Stormwalker and Golden Wyvern are subpar, but not heinous. Emerald Frost sucks shrivelled donkey parts. I think that's the name that really jumped out and made me cringe.

Oh, and "Frozen Finger" strikes a (sour) chord with my inner perv.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Reagrding the lack of illusion and necromancy in the article...
maybe (HOPEFULLY) this heralds the return of the Illuionist as a stand alone class and the birth of the Necromancer as one as well. (No, I don't count the Necros from recent books because they had to be built around the 3.5 framework, wheras the way wizards are shaping up for 4e they very well could--and should--be built as unique.) Necromancers should not be a type of wizard or type of cleric...they should be separate and distinct.

 

[Nine Hands]

Unless of course, by sacrificing them you send thier soul to the entity in which you dedicated the ritual. In that case its a way for demons/gods to get their hands on really pure souls they would otherwise never obtain.

Makes a real good argument for WHY cults exist..doesnt it?

Exactly.

That and for the fact that there is nothing more damning than the destruction of something so innocent and pure. This act drives the cultist farther into the folds of evil.

 

[F4NBOY]

I actually really like Iron Sigil. Hidden Flame and Serpent Eye are okay. Stormwalker and Golden Wyvern are subpar, but not heinous. Emerald Frost sucks shrivelled donkey parts. I think that's the name that really jumped out and made me cringe.

Oh, and "Frozen Finger" strikes a (sour) chord with my inner perv.

What about Corrosive Glacier, Shivering Emerald, Green Winter, Hibernal Decay, Sulphuric Icicle, Snowy Corrotion.