doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
A friend and I were talking about how…disappointing the Wizard is to us in 5e, and we went over a ton of ideas to make them feel like thier lore, but one stands out.
Each of the 8 schools of magic are a proficiency, and the wizard gets the most of them at level 1.
Each School has basic uses like a skill if you’re proficient, and you can’t learn spells of that school without proficiency (unless a specific feature overrides this). Might have an expertise benefit as well.
You also have to roll for many/most spells, with a simple table of results by check result. This is the most work-intensive part.
Or, perhaps you have a couple axis you can roll for, so it stays a general rule.
The other way to go is to have those skills be what spells are, and you always have to roll, unless you master a spell, in which case you can choose to just cast without a check and use the medium result. Make each school truly a magic skill.
Any of the above would help make wizards feel like wizards.
Other ideas:
I think there were more, but that’s what i remember.
Anyone got better ideas or thoughts about the above ideas?
Each of the 8 schools of magic are a proficiency, and the wizard gets the most of them at level 1.
Each School has basic uses like a skill if you’re proficient, and you can’t learn spells of that school without proficiency (unless a specific feature overrides this). Might have an expertise benefit as well.
You also have to roll for many/most spells, with a simple table of results by check result. This is the most work-intensive part.
Or, perhaps you have a couple axis you can roll for, so it stays a general rule.
The other way to go is to have those skills be what spells are, and you always have to roll, unless you master a spell, in which case you can choose to just cast without a check and use the medium result. Make each school truly a magic skill.
Any of the above would help make wizards feel like wizards.
Other ideas:
- associate a cosmic language with each spell or with groups of spells. So a spell or a school or “spells that deal with fire” might be based in draconic, or primordial, etc, and you can learn and transcribe it faster and cheaper if you are proficient with that language.
- Magical traps and such require arcana, nature, or religion, to easily solve.
- 4e style, arcana can do things like identify spells, magic items and potions, and provides monster knowledge for XYZ monsters, allow you to disable or suppress a magical effect for a while, reconfigure ritual magic and magic devices, etc.
- Learning spells requires skill checks, and you can make those checks after observing a spell though it’s harder
I think there were more, but that’s what i remember.
Anyone got better ideas or thoughts about the above ideas?