Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Al'Kelhar" data-source="post: 1382806" data-attributes="member: 7884">I have nothing against statistics, I'm just suggesting that to use them to compare classes - whether core or PrC - is not particularly instructive.&nbsp; The proof is in the pudding, as they say.YMMV is actually something I picked up from these boards - I understand it's an acronym for &quot;your mileage may vary&quot;, which I guess is a trade practices cop-out by car vendors in the US to ensure they're not sued for misleading advertising when the car they advertised as a certain l/km - sorry, mpg - never quite reaches that economy in real use.&nbsp; In this context, it really means &quot;you may have a different perspective on this issue&quot;.I was lumping what were previously called &quot;heredities&quot; and &quot;spell paths&quot; under the one heading called &quot;Affinities&quot;.&nbsp; I think in a previous post you mentioned lists of both &quot;heredities&quot; and &quot;spell paths&quot; from several sources, and there were around 25.&nbsp; I like that sorcerers might be built around thematic lines, rather than ancestral lines, and I think this should be an option for the core class.The difficulty with giving the sorcerer &quot;unique&quot; abilities which really set it apart from the wizard is that you need to compromise somewhere else, or you're over-powering the sorcerer.&nbsp; If you make using spells as spell-like abilities the &quot;keystone&quot; ability of the sorcerer, such that it really defines the character class - as rage does for the barbarian, music does for the bard, and wildshape does for the druid - you need to balance it somewhere else in the class design.&nbsp; As I think I've stated before, even the changes to Hit Dice and skills, with no change at all the spellcasting and no additional &quot;unique&quot; powers, is probably enough to re-balance the sorcerer with other core classes.&nbsp; If you intend to make spell-like abilities the &quot;keystone&quot; ability of the sorcerer, such that they gain lots of these powers and the powers improve dramatically over levels, you should reduce the sorcerer's spellcasting powers to balance the whole out.I chose 2, 8, 13, 17 and 20 on the theoretical basis that minor increases in power should occur more frequently at higher levels because they have proportionately less effect as the character increases in levels.&nbsp; However, on reflection, the power difference between each level of spell increases anyway, such that the difference in power between a 4th level spell and a 3rd level spell is greater than the difference in power between a 3rd level spell and a 2nd level which is greater than the difference in power between a 2nd level spell and a 1st level spell, and so on.&nbsp; So a fixed number of levels between the acquisition of the spell-like abilities is fine.As to number of spell-like abilities, on reflection I'd reduce it to 4 again (0-3rd), unless you're going to make compensatory changes to the sorcerer's spellcasting.&nbsp; Otherwise I think we're into the territory of making the sorcerer too powerful.&nbsp; See my comments above.Cheers, Al'Kelhar</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Al'Kelhar, post: 1382806, member: 7884"] I have nothing against statistics, I'm just suggesting that to use them to compare classes - whether core or PrC - is not particularly instructive. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. YMMV is actually something I picked up from these boards - I understand it's an acronym for "your mileage may vary", which I guess is a trade practices cop-out by car vendors in the US to ensure they're not sued for misleading advertising when the car they advertised as a certain l/km - sorry, mpg - never quite reaches that economy in real use. In this context, it really means "you may have a different perspective on this issue". I was lumping what were previously called "heredities" and "spell paths" under the one heading called "Affinities". I think in a previous post you mentioned lists of both "heredities" and "spell paths" from several sources, and there were around 25. I like that sorcerers might be built around thematic lines, rather than ancestral lines, and I think this should be an option for the core class. The difficulty with giving the sorcerer "unique" abilities which really set it apart from the wizard is that you need to compromise somewhere else, or you're over-powering the sorcerer. If you make using spells as spell-like abilities the "keystone" ability of the sorcerer, such that it really defines the character class - as rage does for the barbarian, music does for the bard, and wildshape does for the druid - you need to balance it somewhere else in the class design. As I think I've stated before, even the changes to Hit Dice and skills, with no change at all the spellcasting and no additional "unique" powers, is probably enough to re-balance the sorcerer with other core classes. If you intend to make spell-like abilities the "keystone" ability of the sorcerer, such that they gain lots of these powers and the powers improve dramatically over levels, you should reduce the sorcerer's spellcasting powers to balance the whole out. I chose 2, 8, 13, 17 and 20 on the theoretical basis that minor increases in power should occur more frequently at higher levels because they have proportionately less effect as the character increases in levels. However, on reflection, the power difference between each level of spell increases anyway, such that the difference in power between a 4th level spell and a 3rd level spell is greater than the difference in power between a 3rd level spell and a 2nd level which is greater than the difference in power between a 2nd level spell and a 1st level spell, and so on. So a fixed number of levels between the acquisition of the spell-like abilities is fine. As to number of spell-like abilities, on reflection I'd reduce it to 4 again (0-3rd), unless you're going to make compensatory changes to the sorcerer's spellcasting. Otherwise I think we're into the territory of making the sorcerer too powerful. See my comments above. Cheers, Al'Kelhar [/QUOTE]

Verification