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Message: <blockquote data-quote="enworldatemylogin" data-source="post: 1334416" data-attributes="member: 9382">Is anyone familiar with the idea of path magic?  Basically you are a specialist mage casting spells only from the paths you choose, like path of fire, path of blades, etc.  You can find the details about it here:  <a href="http://forum.sonomarin.net/viewtopic.php?t=293" target="_blank">http://forum.sonomarin.net/viewtopic.php?t=293</a>I decided to give it a try, but found this idea to be horrible.Scenario 1Let us assume a Wizard of 5th level with and Intelligence of 18 is being created.Let us also assume that I have no interest in creating Paths from scratch, thus I must use paths available.  In this case those paths are from Sean K. Reynolds.A first level Path mage with an 18 INT will start with 5 paths.  1 base path and 4 for his INT bonus.  Now, for this character the paths I chose had to fit, even if only remotely, into one of the following parameters.  Since this character was supposed to have learned magic from a FireKnife assassin, one path had to deal with fire and another path sharp pointy things.  Second, I wanted at least a few of the spells I would choose for a normal wizard, (ray of enfeeblement and dispel magic).  Lastly, I wanted to make sure I had at least 1 spell from levels 0 to 3 to cast.Thus to fit these parameters the first 5 paths taken at first level are:Path of Light (dancing lights, light, continual flame, daylight, sunburst)Blade Fury (magic weapon, greater magic weapon)Death Rays (ray of enfeeblement, enervation, finger of death, energy drain)Mind Lock (daze, sleep, hold person, confusion, feeblemind, hold monster, insanity)Fiery Spheres (flaming sphere, fireball, delayed blast fireball, meteor swarm)In the case of death rays a modification was required as Enervation was listed as a second level spell when it is a 4th level spell.Thus, at first level this wizard begins play with the following spells.0th levelDancing LightsLightDaze1st levelMagic WeaponRay of EnfeeblementSleepWhen the wizard levels up to 2nd level he gets to choose 3 spells from his paths to add to his spell book.  The path mage must still abide by his caster level, thusly he can't choose to add 2nd level or higher spells yet.This path mage thus gains the following spells for second level.0th levelnone1st levelnoneUpon reaching 3rd level the path mage gets to add both 2nd level spells to his book as well as add a 6th path.  This path mage chooses the Path of Dispelling (dispel magic, antimagic field, greater dispelling, Mordenkainen's disjunction).  He gets to add 3 spells of either 0th, 1st, or 2nd level to his book.0th levelnone1st levelnone2nd levelFlaming sphereContinual FlameDaylightNow the path mage has reached 4th level.  He can add another 3 spells of either 0th, 1st, or 2nd level.0th levelnone1st levelnone2nd levelnoneFinally the wizard has reached 5th level and gains access to 3rd level spells as well as a 7th path.  The path chosen for this level needed modification as 3.5 removed one of the spells from the game.  Thus the 7th path:Path of haste (haste, timestop)3 more spells from the 7 paths can be added to the spell book.0th levelnone1st levelnone2nd levelnone3rd levelHasteDispel magicFireballThus, this 5th level path mage with 7 paths has 12 spells total in his spell book.Perhaps if he had different paths he would have more spells.  Perhaps less.  Scenario 2Now, let us assume he chose all paths which had exactly 1 spell of each spell level and recalculate his spell access.1st level with access to 5 paths means:0th level5 spells1st level 5 spellsNow at 2nd level the mage can add 3 spells.  Here we have a problem.  If the 5 paths only have 1 spell of 0th and 1st level each, he has already taken all spells possible and thus gains nothing.  See the level 2 entry from Scenario 1 above for comparison.But at 3rd level he gains a 6th path and access to second level spells.  Thus he can add 3 more spells.4th level is gained.  Let us assume at 3rd level the mage took the 0th, 1st, and 2nd level spells from his 6th path.  Thus he can still choose the 2nd level spells from the first 5 paths.  So he gains 3 more spells.Finally 5th level and yet another path and 3 more spells.So he gains 3 more spells.  Total for this particular path mage is 19 spells in his spell book at 5th level.Now, while writing this I discovered something I believe any reasonable DM would allow.  Notice at both versions 2nd level the wizard gained no spells.  That's 3 spells he should be able to add at a later time.  Thus taking our first example, if the  mage waits for 5th level to add those missing 3 spells, he gets:0th levelnone1st levelnone2nd levelnone3rd levelgreater magic weaponHold personThus the path mage has a revised total of 14 spell.Taking the second example if we allow the 3 spells to be added at 5th level, the mage only has 2 spells he has not added and so adding those 2 his revised total at 5th level is 21 spells.Now, let us take a look at a normal wizard.At first level a normal wizard gets to add 18 0th level spells (not including read magic which would be 19 but a path mage would get as well) and 3 plus 1 for each bonus from INT, for a total of seven 1st level spells.2nd level he gets to add any 2 spells of 0th or 1st level.3rd level he gets to add any 2 spells of 0th, 1st or 2nd level.4th level he gets to add any 2 spells of 0th, 1st or 2nd level.5th level he gets to add any 2 spells of 0th, 1st, 2nd or 3rd level.Thus a 5th level normal wizard has a total of 33.Thus 14 spells for the first example path mage, 21 for the second example or 33 for the normal wizard.Further restrictions.  A path mage can't use any scroll or wand he might find that contains magic not on his path.  Such items can NOT be used by a path mage, while a normal wizard could use a wand and add a scroll to his spell book or use the scroll.  Am I missing something?  Or is this as horrible as I think?  Even at 6th level it is horrible, as both Scenario 1 and 2 have no spells to add.  Maybe at 7th level it would finally start looking like a viable option, but who the hell is going to stay with it for 7 levels?</blockquote>

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