Should a "specialist" wizard be demoted?

[Thresher]

Is he using the divination spells though?
I wouldnt 'penalise' if he was using the spells to scry an area to see whats in there before sending in the fighters and doing the backup nuking.
However, if he's the type thats just running in and blasting the heck out of anything that leaps out then by all means you might want to have at least a talk to him about just why he bothered taking div-spec.

Just one other thing, are you giving the character any leeway to use the Divination spells so they are more useful? Maybe a few quests to locate a lost item or person so he can use them a bit more? As is, if theyre doing a lot of monster bashing fairly regually then theyre only going to get xp from bodies hitting the floor and I wouldnt blame him for loading up for bear.

 

[Bugaboo]

Well, yeah, he's casting divinations -- but only barely. One Identify spell, one See Invisibility, and one Tongues. Otherwise, it's Fireball that, Continual Flame this, Burning Hands the other... He's not a Diviner in the least; he's a bleepin' PYROMANIAC. And I'm a little tired of the misrepresentation.

 

[Crothian]

Well, yeah, he's casting divinations -- but only barely. One Identify spell, one See Invisibility, and one Tongues. Otherwise, it's Fireball that, Continual Flame this, Burning Hands the other... He's not a Diviner in the least; he's a bleepin' PYROMANIAC. And I'm a little tired of the misrepresentation.

So, would you perfer him to be an evocationist?

Personally, I don't really see th e problem. Sure, it's what one expects a Diviner to do, but unless it's ruining the fun for the others I'd let it be.

 

[Umbran]

Otherwise, it's Fireball that, Continual Flame this, Burning Hands the other...

Yes, and in the situations in which these were used, would Identify have been of any use?

Being a specialist emans you are better at certain types fo spells. It doesn't mean you eschew teh right tool for the job. Sounds to me he's being faced with a lot of combat situations. When you're being threatened by a sword, Detect Law isn't your best option, you know

 

[hammymchamham]

I can just see a diviner who has True Strike as his specialist spell at every level, and the has ray spells prepared

The wizard is doing nothing wrong. What if I was an evocation specialist and had summon monster spells prepared. Would you strip me of my specialistion?

 

[reapersaurus]

Bugaboo - are you _serious_?

I seriously thought this to be a troll, and was trying to play along in exagerrated, but just-realistic-enough fashion.

whooda thunk?

 

[AEtherfyre]

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.)

By "one spell per level," do you mean caster level, or spell level? If it's spell level, yeah, he's not following the rules - one of the catches of Speciallization for wizards is that 1/2 of your automatic spells must be for your speciallized school. That is, he has to have at least one divination spell known per caster level - of the two he gains on a level-up, one has to be a divination.

Otherwize, no, it's not a problem, as far as game mechanics go. It's not a matter of him munchkinizing for extra spells - after all, he has a bunch of wasted spells known, and he doesn't get anything for it, if he doesn't use divinations.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Put him in situations where he'll need to use divination magic. If he's always fighting someone having tongues memorized 5 times isn't going to help him much (proably why he's memorizing fire ball and burning hands). If my DM didn't present any reason for me to memorize non-combat spells I wouldn't memorize them.

And if he's trying to be a munchkin he really really sucks. Divination is the weakest school (still a very important one though!).

 

[Creamsteak]

Re: Re: Should a "specialist" wizard be demoted?

By "one spell per level," do you mean caster level, or spell level? If it's spell level, yeah, he's not following the rules - one of the catches of Speciallization for wizards is that 1/2 of your automatic spells must be for your speciallized school. That is, he has to have at least one divination spell known per caster level - of the two he gains on a level-up, one has to be a divination.

Otherwize, no, it's not a problem, as far as game mechanics go. It's not a matter of him munchkinizing for extra spells - after all, he has a bunch of wasted spells known, and he doesn't get anything for it, if he doesn't use divinations.

Somehow that doesn't sound right... but what's the mistake?

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

My Diviner sounds very similar as I too have spell focus evocation and no necromancy.

I use detect spells heaps and clairvoyance/audience but only detect thoughts forces a save. So it came down to spell focus cojurations or evocations being worth the feat.

I mean, do I have to aspire to wearing robes, philosophical mutterings and hanging out by mirrors?

However, my character does try to collect all the divination spells.