D&D (2024) Should the PHB have an arcane half caster?

[Vaalingrade]

How come you dislike the entire concept of half casters?

They're personally my favourite type of class. You get to be a caster without all the cheesy campaign destroying overpowered spells, while also working that magic into other mechanics.

Edit: But yeah, the ODD spell lists are looking awful already. Bard basically being a wizard with a guitar.

If half casters was the only kind of caster, it'd be fine.

But trying to play a half caster, who gets spells so late in the game that they're meaningless because there's another class that's just plain better at what you're trying to do? Not for me.

I still remember the 3e Bard getting Shadow Evocation, Dominate, etc ten thousand years after the Wizard got it. And that was my favorite class, just not for any of the spellcasting.

 

[MoonSong]

And yet the wizard clone gets in somehow.

Not a wizard clone, at least not yet.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

The choice is pretty simple:
Take a class already in the PHB, make it an arcane half-caster.

I'd go either with Warlock or Bard, myself.

Warlock doesnt gain much from their ''full'' spellcasting anyways. Remove ''mystic arcanum'', keep them at 2 slots per SR if need be and give them more Invocations. Keep them either as a CHA-caster or move them to INT-casting.

The sorcerer could be a good solution too, since them being full spellcasters dont help in differentiating them from other full spellcaster. Change them to half-casters with special defenses and attacks based on their origin. Having scales and at-will breath weapon, or blinking effect and at-will chaos bolt could be awesome and way more than yet another caster who can cast Earthquake!

Sorcerer was kind of a half caster in the initial 5e playtest. Just using will points rather than spell slots.

People complained so we got a wizard clone instead.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

People complained so we got a wizard clone instead.

That's a think WotC should learn: you dont design to please people who dont want it, you design for those who are actually interested in seeing the final results!

But its D&D, the tradition argument will always win sadly.

 

[Vaalingrade]

And now 5.5e is going to be 'Oops, all Wizard clones!'

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

And now 5.5e is going to be 'Oops, all Wizard clones!'

As we've seen with the species, I think that there wont be much cases where your character use no spells.

I wont panic or throw hot takes, but as someone who dont care much for magic as presented in D&D, if all classes have feature referencing spells, I think I'll move out to another system.

 

[Shiroiken]

I wouldn't mind having one, but we know it won't happen in the PHB. Best we can hope for is being added in the first supplement.

 

[Vaalingrade]

As we've seen with the species, I think that there wont be much cases where your character use no spells.

I wont panic or throw hot takes, but as someone who dont care much for magic as presented in D&D, if all classes have feature referencing spells, I think I'll move out to another system.

I'm more focused on all the onerous spell prep being foisted on the good classes.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I've always felt Bard was more 'occult' themed than arcane, to put it in Pathfinder language. I do wish Bard was an 'occult' half caster though.

The one dnd Bard is literally just looking like wizard clone version 2. After the sorcerer being wizard clone version 1.

The playtest sorcerer is another good arcane half caster option. So there are three choices for WotC to ignore!

 

[CreamCloud0]

The choice is pretty simple:
Take a class already in the PHB, make it an arcane half-caster.

I'd go either with Warlock or Bard, myself.

Warlock doesnt gain much from their ''full'' spellcasting anyways. Remove ''mystic arcanum'', keep them at 2 slots per SR if need be and give them more Invocations. Keep them either as a CHA-caster or move them to INT-casting.

The sorcerer could be a good solution too, since them being full spellcasters dont help in differentiating them from other full spellcaster. Change them to half-casters with special defenses and attacks based on their origin. Having scales and at-will breath weapon, or blinking effect and at-will chaos bolt could be awesome and way more than yet another caster who can cast Earthquake!

i like sorcerer and warlock as they are right now as full casters, i mean sorcerer could get some extra abilities to define it but not in that way, i would like bard as a half caster but not as the arcane half caster, being a full caster is a little much for a jack of all trades class imo,