Should a "specialist" wizard be demoted?

[Bugaboo]

Here's the situation: This player rolled up his new character several months back and decided to make him a specialist wizard. His character, Liam 'Fireball' Bloodfang, was a Diviner, he said. So he chose Necromancy as his prohibited school and gained an extra Divination spell for it. No problem.

But a few experience points down the road, I notice that his spell book and preferred castings include only a single Divination spell at each level. ONE. Quite the "specialist," eh? (Heck, he even Spell Focus as a feat for his Evocation spells.)

Now, call me old school, but I figure that anyone who plays a specialist mage should make some effort to play up that aspect of his character, otherwise he's just taking a bonus because he can. At the very least, he's an idiot and doesn't understand what he's doing; at worst, he's consciously munchkin-ing in some (ineffective) manner. Regardless, he's not really adhering to the spirit of the game.

I'd like to strip him of his "specialist" designation to make a point. What say you?

 

[tabrumj]

Strip the designation. He is obviously being a munchkin and trying to gain the extra spells.

 

[Sir Edgar]

Personally, I don't really like the way the wizard or sorcerer classes are set up. It doesn't seem necessary to have specializations and prohibited schools and their relationships don't even make sense to me.

Instead, I'd rather see spell-casters broken down into very specific classes that can only cast a certain kind of spell, whether based on an element (fire, ice, wind, or earth) or type (enchanter, illusionist, necromancer, or sorcerer).

So, I think there should be only the one wizard class and then broken down into these sub-categories, where many of their spells are exclusive.

But I'm sure many people will disagree and that's fine.

 

[Crothian]

He doesn't seem to be doing anything wrong. There's no proof that he's trying to abuse the rules so stripping him would be an over reaction. Mention it to him and see what he says.

Edit: Welcome back Bugaboo

 

[mattcolville]

Hang on, doesn't his extra spell have to be from his specialty school? So if he never learns any divination spells, he never gets to use that extra slot.

I say let the guy work it out on his own.

 

[Oni]

Ask yourself some questions first.

*Is he having fun playing his character?

*Is he making the game less run for the other players?

*Has game balance been hopelessly skewed?

*What breaks suspension of disbelief more. A specialist that doesn't particularly like his specialty, or retroactively changing the characters abilities?

*Is your point worth making? Is it play my way, or the highway?


Question to ask myself:
Have I fallen for a Bugaboo troll?

A: I don't care, this wouldn't be the first time I've heard a question like this asked in all seriousness and so it deserves attention.



[Sidenote: Is that one divination spell per spell level or per character level, because the former would be a violation of the rules and latter would not as you are required as a specialist to take one spell from your specialty school everytime you gain spells from leveling.]

 

[Buttercup]

Well, Bugaboo, it depends. If you want to be a purist, then sure, revoke his specialist designation. But if you do that, he might quit, thus depriving you of valuable income. (I assume you are still charging your players.) So it depends on how badly you need the money, I guess.

 

[reapersaurus]

I think that you should read up on the Golden Rule:
"Never grant in-game advantages at the 'cost' of roleplaying disadvantages."

Therefore, by the corollary: "Never grant in-game penalties for roleplaying advantages."

Just because the guy is obviously reaping the benefits of the rules, guess what? He is following the rules, and should not be penalized with forcing him some roleplaying disadvantage, or requirements.

 

[Umbran]

None of the rules say he must cast spells of a certain type. He's prohibited from some, gains some extras if he wants to cast them.

Riddle me this - are you putting him in situations where lots of divinations would be useful? If not, you can't really blame him for adapting to his environment.

If he's munchkining in an ineffective manner, what of it? You're going to take punative action against him for doing something that doesn't work very well? What kind of logic is that? If you're going to do that, you're probably going to start beating people about the head and shoulders with the DMG for putting a high stat in an attribute they don't use very much...

Also, the fact that you believe he should play something up, and that you might strip him of benefits if he didn't, should have been mentioned before he started playing the character. It isn't exactly fair to go changing the rules on him.

 

[reiella]

There's also the aspect of being a diviner, how often in a given day do they use their 'trademark' abilities. How often a day is a diviner going to cast Identify or Legend Lore? And exactly how useful is an additional +1 to the DC for Spell Focus (Divination)?