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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4642340" data-attributes="member: 40961">Reading this class has brought something to the front of my mind that has been percolating in the back for a long time. I hate traditional D&D style arcane magic.  Or at least, I hate certain assumptions in it. The way I see traditional D&D arcane magic is this- spells are discrete objects that you can learn.  A spellcaster can mix and match this repertoire of spells as he prefers.  Knowing one spell doesn't help with knowing other similar spells, each one is a unique object.  So, one spellcaster might know Scorching Burst, Invisibility, Ray of Frost, and Acid Orb.  There's no connection between the items in this list, they're just all spells. But I prefer theme. I think its why I like the 4e warlock so much.  It lets you create a spellcaster who has a particular style. I think the biggest offender for me from the traditional arcane stylings is the mixing and matching of energy types.  It just bugs the heck out of me to see a character themed after a red dragon descended sorcerer who possesses flame immunities and extra strong flame power but who still elects to breathe ice and lightning on people.  If you're going to tell me that I can have a red dragon themed sorcerer, don't force me to adulterate him with random incorrect energy types! This is probably the reason that I was so hopeful that wizards would have gotten the schools of wizardry they previewed, even if they were named things like Golden Wyvern Adept (do the people who whined about this name realize they doomed us all to adjective-verb-er naming structures?).  It would have imposed some sense of theme and continuity to the wizard, instead of giving him a big, disparate list of spells.  A wizard would have been able to specialize in, say, acid and cold, and would have had specific benefits to encourage a particular theme and style, much like the warlock's pact choices create a style.  I would have liked that. So... some of the sorcerer preview excites me.  But I'm expecting to be ultimately disappointed, for the same reason that I'm ultimately disappointed in the wizard.  It promises theme, and I bet its possible to create an actual, say, blue dragon themed sorcerer.  But I bet that transfering your powers to all be lightning or theme-compatible non typed effects isn't going to be easy, and the natural tendency of the class will be for people to choose a dragon type, pay attention to it for the first few levels, and then promptly ignore it. I guess if other people like it that's fine.  I've still got the other power sources to enjoy.  The Wizard, Swordmage, and to a lesser extent Sorcerer disappoint me with their old school themeless disparate-pile-o'-spells approach, but the classes from the Divine and Primal power source both use well themed magic.  Shadow will probably make me happy as well, and Elemental might finally scratch my itch for the ability to create themed elemental magic using classes (or it might not, no guarantees they won't revert to type there).  Psionics might work for me, but it didn't in 3e, so no guarantees either.</blockquote>

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