Races of the Wild: All wizards will be elves now

[Gnome]

Has anyone noticed in Races of the Wild, the 1st-level racial substitution level for elf wizards allows them to have a bonus spell of each spell level, like specialist wizards, only of any school? And guess what they give-up in exchange for this extremely nice ability:

The ability to specialize in a school of magic!

If one is playing a generalist wizard, then one has already given this up already! Might as well make the trade-off be the inability to start as a paladin at 1st-level.

Okay, I'm done venting now.

 

[Ravellion]

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=121797

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=121737

And you only get a bonus spell slot of the highest level spell you can cast.

Rav

 

[JoshWilhoyte]

I thought it was that you learned one additional spell per level (ie. you add three to your spell book instead of two), and that you always had one additional slot of the highest level spell you could cast, as opposed to one at each level. Ie. while a Transmuter of 5th level has an additional Cantrip, 1st level, 2nd level and 3rd level slot only usable to cast Trasmutation spells, the Elven Generalist has an additional 3rd level spell slot useable to cast any spell. This doesn't seem particularly overpowered to me. Or did I hear incorrectly what the Elven substitution level is?

editted: He typed faster than I

 

[Gnome]

I must have misread it. One bonus spell of the highest level doesn't bother me so much. It's nice, but not the same as all the benefits of specialization with none of the drawbacks like I was thinking.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Hell, why not? There seems to be a standing policy of making sure that there is a flavor of Elf that is the best race for every single class...

 

[Ferrix]

Hell, why not? There seems to be a standing policy of making sure that there is a flavor of Elf that is the best race for every single class...

I don't think that actually stands very well, sure there are a lot of elf subraces but not all of them correspond so well to all the classes. I've yet to see an elf subrace with a bonus to wisdom (druid, monk or cleric) or one with a bonus to constitution.

From what I've heard, the racial substitution level sounds like a reasonable idea considering they are supposed to have wizard as a favored class, when half of the other races make better wizards in the first place.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Hell, why not? There seems to be a standing policy of making sure that there is a flavor of Elf that is the best race for every single class...

That was the Complete Book of Elves in 2e...hasn't really happened at all in 3e.

 

[Shin Okada]

Still, -2 Con is no good for Wizards. I rarely see elven wizards or sorcerers today. Most Elves seem to choose the way of thieves.....

 

[Testament]

Yes, it does make non-Grey Elves halfway decent wizards.

Problem is, if you allow it, then you open the door to the other Racial Sub levels. And I'm sorry, there's no way in the nine layers of Baator that I'm allowing people to take the excuses for twinkage that most of the others are. Dwarven Fighter's the one I come back to every time, that or Goliath Barbarian. No trade off to speak of, and huge bonuses.