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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snapdragyn" data-source="post: 1272823" data-attributes="member: 12432">Apologies for the crosspost; it was pointed out to me that this would fit better here than as a post in the General thread on the latest issue of DragonBackground: My homebrew setting is based in a cosmology where the Inner Planes never separated & the Prime Material doesn't exist -- instead, there's a (yet unnamed, doh) plane which combines parts of all of the elements in one big weightless (in most places) mix.Enter the sha'ir in Dragon 315, a class from the Al Qadim campaign setting based on dealings with genies.Suddenly my whole 'creation myth' got rewritten to make the various genies figure in... humans became (I'm thinking) a 'weakling' offshoot race of jann... & the great wars of the past are quite often involve meddling genies manipulating the 'lesser' races to further their own goals of supremacy for their species & element. Thankfully, the players have only just hit 2nd level & left their isolated village, so major gameworld revisions like this are still possible.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The downside of this, however, is that I just cannot see the sha'ir as presented really working as a typical adventurer. Certainly it'd work as an NPC class, sticking strictly to more urban settings & advancing through interaction xp rather than battles. But for a roam-the-world, delve-the-dungeon, conquer-the-dragon adventurer? Maybe I'm missing something, but the spell mechanics seem far too limiting, especially at early levels. Good grief, a 1st level sha'ir with 18 CHA has only a 50% chance to successfully retrieve a 1st level spell in their 'known' list! With the extra +2 to the DC to retrieve a spell after failing a check in the same day, there would be plenty of days marked by the words 'sorry guys, I couldn't manage to get a spell today'.I'd really like to include the sha'ir as a playable class, especially since I'm now planning on having genies much more involved in the world. Anyone have suggestions on homebrew revisions to the class -- either ways to make the casting system better so they're more of a sorcerer/wizard alternative, or changes to give them a focus outside of their (IMO) incredibly weak casting abilities? I'd never heard of Al Qadim before this issue, so I'd especially appreciate suggestions from those more familiar with the original flavor of the class. Keep in mind that I am looking to make this into a broader class suited to both urban & dungeon/wilderness adventuring, & not just a social class fairly unsuited for combat.One possibility: allowing spontaneous spell conversion to 'summon monster x', with the summoned monster being something with a genie or elemental 'flavor' to it. This would allow the adventuring sha'ir to have its gen retrieve other spells (hopefully, hehe) while always having the option to call up a friend to do battle for it, provided he still had spells left to cast.</blockquote>

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