Opinions wanted on some Wizard tweaks

[InkwellIdeas]

I'm looking for some feedback on some changes I'm looking at for the core wizard class in my campaign. (We might apply some of these changes to other spellcasters as well.)

First of all, the critique we have is the wizard gets spent early and has to wait until the next day and that often means the party must also wait until then. This can be partially fixed by maybe not making the encounters so challenging or by better resourcefulness by the players but even considering those factors I think the premise is true.

Second, we just have a general feeling that the wizard is underpowered at low (1-5) levels and overpowered at higher levels (roughly 12+) compared to other classes. We'd like to keep it so the wizard is just as important as other classes and vice versa.

I think I've read that sentiment before, but if anyone wants to comment on it please do.

So we're already using a custom spell point system that seems to scale well and I've already tweaked that so that the wizard gets a few more spell points at low levels and maybe fewer than a straight mapping of spell levels to spell points would give him at high levels. This helps with the second critique above.

As for the first issue, I'm planning on letting the wizard recharge his spell points throughout the day at what I consider a relatively slow rate: 1/10 per hour. So if he has 50 points, he'll get 5 back per hour until he's back too full. Do y'all think that's too many/too few? The players think that isn't enough to overcome the problem of being spent too quickly and if they are dungeon crawling they'll be too likely to get attacked before the wizard gets many points back. I think if I make the recharge rate faster the wizard will be unbalanced because I feel one of the ways the class is balanced is that the wizard can use up nearly all his spells in a single battle if it is needed, but if he does that he'll be weak for a while. If that aspect is changed too much the wizard may use his most powerful spells in nearly every battle and the other characters won't get to shine.

So I'm also considering giving the Wizard (in addition to the 1/10 recharge rate) the ability to pick a spell (one or maybe two levels (minimum 0-level) lower than the highest he can cast) that he can cast without using his points. He could change his pick each time he levels up. I may also make it a feat he can take to gain additional spell-point-free spells, but the feat version would definitely be to pick a spell two levels lower. The players think this is a winning idea and I like it too, but I thought I'd look for more opinions.

Finally, what should I take away from the wizard to keep these two changes balanced?

I've got some ideas to self-publish (even if just for free on the web) whatever I finally decide, so if your answer includes references to existing classes of feats or whatever in some of WotC's auxiliary books (Complete Arcane, etc) or other third party books that's nice to know but I can probably only use it if it is open content.

Thanks for reading this far.

 

[Switchblade]

Have you considered using the spell recharge rules in unearthed arcana? They seem to be similar in style (but not mechanics) to what you are trying to do (though I've never tried them I should add). Rather than having spell slots each spell has a recharge time, the higher the level mage compared to the spell the quicker the charge. Buffs etc take hours but dirrect damage spells tend to recharge in a matter of rounds. What stops it being too powerful is a mage can't cast the same spell continously and has to switch to lower level spells while his bigger spells refresh but is not limited in times per day. Using this may be a lot easier than making a new system from scratch but does mean the mage will enter each fight fully powered.

Problem with using a simple point based system is mages will want to burn all their points on a few good spells rather than lots of weak ones, which seems to be the main gripe with the mechanics of Psyonics in my usual gaming groups.

If you do want a recharge rule how about a total recharge but requires a ritual (say 15 minutes long). This doesn't limit them as a short pause and the pc's are ready to go but does allow the GM an option to wear the group down by simply not giving them chance to stop, rest and ritualize. Or make the ritual a feat so it has a hard cap of how many times it can be done per day, increased by sinking feats. Each time the ritual is performed per day the mage gets back one less of the highest level spells so they slowly weaken and have to rely more on lower spells. Or ritual only returns spells of up to half the max level the mage can cast (ie if they can cast 4th level spells they can only refresh up to 2nd level spells but can do this ritual any amount of times). This way they will never run out of power but do have to save the more powerful ones for when needed.

As for weakening higher level mages - not a clue, never played at that high a level without getting distracted by either Ars Magica or Shadowrun.

 

[Quartz]

First of all, the critique we have is the wizard gets spent early and has to wait until the next day and that often means the party must also wait until then.

I disagree. It is easily fixable by two things: firstly, imposing a time limit on the adventure - 'You must return the sword before the night of the full moon' - and secondly, letting spellcasters use item creation feats to write those scrolls, brew those potions, craft those wands, etc. A wizard should be a walking arsenal with bandoleers of potions and scrolls and a holster of wands.

 

[Technik4]

A wizard should be a walking arsenal with bandoleers of potions and scrolls and a holster of wands.

But that's just once concept of a wizard (which doesn't have much support from most fantasy novels).

I like the ideas of spell points and getting them back quicker. It really sounds a lot like a Psion, to be honest (at least, 3.0 Psionics).

Second, we just have a general feeling that the wizard is underpowered at low (1-5) levels and overpowered at higher levels (roughly 12+) compared to other classes. We'd like to keep it so the wizard is just as important as other classes and vice versa.

The wizard can be a very important part of an adventure, but for the lower levels he will not be shining in combat except when he uses his spells. Magic Missile is not the way to go at first level. Sleep is overpowered against most 1st level encounters compared to other classes and can turn a very difficult encounter into a very easy one. This comes down to spell selection (and when you're coming up on level 4-5 you have even more options and Magic Missile starts looking pretty good, 3d4+3 for one of your 1st level slots - thats more damage than most characters will do, at range, with almost no chance of failure - oh and 5th brings 3rd level spells which are very on par or over what the rest of the party can do).

I would tone down the Wizard's feat progression. While it is nice to get them, everyone needs more feats, and the wizard oft-times feels like he almost has too many. You can blow a couple on item creation on a whim, while still taking a few to fit your wizardly concept. In exchange for the ability to slowly recover spell points and even have some free spells, I would take away Summon Familiar at 1st level (which can be repurchased at any time using a feat) and the bonus feats at 5th, 10th, and 15th.

Another big concern is that the low-level wizard exerts a lot of energy on keeping himself buffed (via mage armor, or shield) so he doesn't immediately die in combat. Raising the HD to a d6 would not break anything and may make the wizard a little bolder in combat (it's essentially giving the wizard a free Improved Toughness feat at 1st level).

 

[Arkhandus]

Here's a link to the Recharge Magic variant from Unearthed Arcana, in the HyperText SRD.


As for your own recharging idea, I think there are some problems with it, but probably not enough to be problematic most of the time. I dunno. Also, what distinguishes the sorcerer from the wizard in your variant? Do these spell points make wizards into spontaneous casters?

As far as balancing goes, I'd just remove the wizard's bonus feats, though that also makes the wizard more like a sorcerer.

d6 hit dice won't really help a wizard remain effective longer. A high Constitution doesn't really do so (it just reduces the chances of a premature death from a random hit), and marginally higher HD won't do so either. It won't really discourage them from wasting 1-2 slots at a time on Mage Armor/Shield.


A possible solution may be to just change the wizard's spell slots. Maybe change the wizard's spell slot table to something like this:

[B]Wizard Spells:[/B]
Class				Spells Per Day
[U]Level	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9[/U]
1	6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	7	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	7	5	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	7	6	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	7	6	5	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	7	6	6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	7	6	6	4	1	-	-	-	-	-
8	7	6	6	5	2	-	-	-	-	-
9	7	6	6	5	2	1	-	-	-	-
10	7	6	6	5	3	2	-	-	-	-
11	7	6	6	5	3	2	1	-	-	-
12	7	6	6	5	4	2	1	-	-	-
13	7	6	6	5	4	2	1	1	-	-
14	7	6	6	5	4	2	2	1	-	-
15	7	6	6	5	4	2	2	1	1	-
16	7	6	6	5	4	3	2	1	1	-
17	7	6	6	5	4	3	2	1	1	1
18	7	6	6	5	4	3	2	2	1	1
19	7	6	6	5	4	3	3	2	1	1
20	7	6	6	5	4	3	3	2	2	1

 

[InkwellIdeas]

Thanks!

Thanks all for the excellent constructive criticism. Real life has gotten in the way of me thanking you sooner, as well as working on other aspects of this idea. (More on that as things mature.)

Regarding specific points:
-I have looked at the recharge magic system in UA, but it strikes me as a bit complicated to track when which spell was cast so you know when you might get a spell of that level back. With the spell points idea, it is easier to just say you get 1/10 of your daily points back each hour, or something like that. Having said that, one of my players did give me an idea for recharging spells (when using spell levels instead of spell points) that is simpler to track: basically, you get one spell level back per half hour, and your lowest level spell comes back first. Ex 1: you've cast 1 1st level spell and 1 2nd level spell, the first level spell comes back in half an hour and the second level spell comes back an hour after that. Ex 2: you've cast a 6th level spell only... it will come back in 3 hours. His idea was just that you get your lowest level cast spell back in 1/2 hour, but I changed it here so it is your lowest level spell comes back at a rate of 1/2 hour per spell level to avoid the ways this can obviously be abused.
-I'll remind the player that he can make some scrolls and potions (depending on the character's feats) but as someone else pointed out not all spellcaster concepts fit the model of carrying 10 scrolls and a number of potions.
-I'll chart the changes I'm making to the class to make sure the improvements and offset by negative changes of similar scope... I may decide to change the class I'm basing this on to a Sorceror. On the other hand, maybe this is a new hybrid and in my future campaign we'll use this instead of the others, assuming a player wants to try it.

Again, thanks, and I'll post again for critiques when I have something a bit more concrete.

 

[Quartz]

A further idea might be to look at the Ultimate Magus prestige class.

 

[Rackhir]

I'd say casters outshine non-casters at HL. I don't think wizards are any worse than druids or clerics.

Also Your spell point system doesn't actually get at the reasons why casters are "overpowered" at high levels, which has less to do with how many spells they can cast and much more to do with what they can cast (not to mention metamagic). High level casters can do all sorts of things that change the game in the way that a non-caster just can't match. So I would look at changing the spells available, more than the number of times they can cast stuff, if you want to "balance" high levels for the non-caster types.

 

[InkwellIdeas]

One more idea

I've kind of simplified my Wizard tweaks. Using spell points or spells per level and how quickly to recharge if I should allow recharging are moreso changes to the magic system, not the Wizard class itself. I've decided to just focus on how to make the Wizard class more effective even if he's out of spells/day (or points). One way to do this is through scrolls and potions, but as mentioned above that may not be a fit for many Wizard concepts.

So how balanced would this ability be:
At each level, the Wizard can designate one spell which he can cast without using any of his daily spell slots (or spell points if using a spell point system.) This spell must be one spell level lower (or less) than the highest he can cast if the highest he can cast is 1st or 2nd level spells. If he can cast 3rd or higher level spells, the designated spell must be two levels lower (or less) than the highest spell he can cast. The designated spell's features that vary by caster level are locked to the lowest caster level that can cast the spell.

Example: A 1st level wizard can always cast an Acid Splash if he designates that spell, then at 2nd level he can change that to Ray of Frost if he prefers for some reason or leave it as Acid Splash. At 3rd level he could keep his prior 0-level spell choice but he should pick a 1st level spell such as Magic Missile. However, it would only generate one missile. At 4th level he could keep Magic Missile or change to some other 1st level spell. At 5th level he would still have to choose among 1st level spells, but at 7th he could switch to a 2nd level spell.

I'm lowering it from a spell level of highest-1 to highest-2 once he can cast 3rd level spells because I think somewhere around there Wizards can hold there own a little better. But if you think I'm wrong, I'm open to constructive criticism so tell me why. I'd also consider a feat letting the Wizard keep this designated spell as 1 level lower than the highest spell level he can cast.

Finally, balance-wise what is this ability worth? I was thinking of letting someone switch to this instead of Summon Familiar. Summon Familiar already doesn't work for many Wizard types. (Just like someone mentioned earlier that a Wizard with many potions and scrolls doesn't fit many Wizard types. BTW, I did an article on other substitutions for Summon Familiar at: Alternative Arcane Feats ) But if a player really wanted both Summon Familiar and this new ability, I might also let them switch this new ability for the Wizard's scribe scroll and 1st level bonus feat. The overall idea might also apply to Sorcerers.