Question about the Domain Wizards in Unearthed Arcana

[Snoweel]

I think the point is that you can offer clerics and wizards as options to your players and you'll find (IME) some people choosing wizards and others choosing clerics - they each do things the other can't do and thus both have a role to play in a multi-character party without being outshone.

Now, to offer the domain wizard and the core wizard... like people said, who would consider playing the core wizard? The domain wizard can do everything the core wizard can do and then some.

So the inclusion of the domain wizard excludes the core wizard as an option, while the cleric does not exclude any other class as an enjoyable player option.

BTW, I'm selling a .pdf of a new core class I invented. It's called the Feat Fighter and it gets feats at every level. $19.95 per download, you interested?

 

[Piratecat]

I'll slide this over to Rules as well.

 

[Silveras]

I wasn't trying to be hard on anyone specifically, but here's the thing: a wizard takes it on the chin with BAB, AC, and hit points. Just seems odd IMO that folks are conditioned to think that it should "cost" something to get access to the same class feature clerical spellcasters receive gratas (along with the superior BAB, AC, and hit points).

Well, we are not talking about whether the Domain Wizard is balanced with the Cleric. We are talking about whether the Domain Wizard is balanced with the "generic" Wizard. Clearly, a class which gets everything the "generic" Wizard does, plus some added abilities, is not on the same power level as the "generic" wizard.

If I sold you a bag of fruits, then told you that you had the option to take 2 more fruits than was in the "standard" bag, would you refuse ? Would you not at least wonder "what's going on ?"

Moreover, it seems odd to make the domain cost a feat not so much because domains are overpowered, bur rather to keep the option of being a generalist open Again, it's like attaching a cost to clerical domains just so that folks who want to play domainless clerics aren't left out. It's a move to preserve the weakest way to play the class. YMMV.

You're missing the subtlety of the point. Your position would make sense if the Domain Wizard was what was presented in the Core Rules (Players Handbook). In that case, asking for a feat so he can have a class ability he is "supposed to have" would indeed be unfair.

However, the Domain Wizard is a variant, not the standard. For the variant to be more powerful than the standard without a corresponding "price", and for that to be considered balanced, implies that one of these is true:

• the standard has been wrong all along (which some people might agree with, but is not the question at hand)
• the variant is broken

Asking which one is true is not at all unreasonable.

I like choices in my world. I like the idea of making Domain Wizards an option in my world. To do that, the other options must remain viable. So I chose to allow only certain Domain choices based on where you come from (realistically, 1 per region); and to keep the other options viable, I copied the way it is done in Forgotten Realms -- I require a feat. I just generalized the Feat instead of creating a specific feat for each area.

 

[rushlight]

IMC I replaced the regular wizard with the domain wizard just after UA came out. I've found very little balance issue, despite (or perhaps because) my party is 20th-21st level. I've found that since the spell lists are limited, and the bonus spell and +1 CL only apply to the limited list, there aren't that many abuses. YMMV.

 

[Pax]

Consider that the "Domain Wizard" gets almost exactly the same benefits as are gained by the FR feat "Calie Elementalist" (from Races of Faerun), and I think charging a feat is just about right.

 

[Pax]

Oh, now, THAT is just the most amazingly CRAPTASTIC application of a profanity filter in (mis)action that I have EVER seen. For the record, the word partially obscured in my post above is:

C
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i
s
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As in, "of or from Calimshan".

Feh.

 

[Silveras]

Consider that the "Domain Wizard" gets almost exactly the same benefits as are gained by the FR feat "Calie Elementalist" (from Races of Faerun), and I think charging a feat is just about right.

That was my inspiration.

 

[BelXiror]

Or instead of domain wizards, have domain sorcerers. After all, sorc's are just so overpowering

Have each domain have something to do with where the sorc gets his magic from, like fire domain from having a fire-related dragon as an ancestor.