Graf
Explorer
For some reason I can't remember I was thnking about specialist wizards.
Two wizards, we'll call them El and Mer are hanging out. They grew up together and studied Divination under the same master (they're both diviners).
Mer was a wise sort of guy and didn't really see the need in making things explode. He can't cast evocation spells. he can't even look at an evocation school and understand it.
El's a Diviner but he loves blowing things up. He's got no knack for enchantment spells. He says its because he's honest For whatever reason Enchantment/Charm spells are Greek to him.
Now, this doesn't make too much sense to me as a story. But it happens all the time in D&D. I'm morally opposed to changing rules unessessarily but I had to wonder if there wasn't a better way that didn't involve a lot of new mechanics.
What if specialization worked like this:
specialists get the same number of spells as wizards of the same level (no bonus spells) however spells of your specialization were easier for you to understand.
A specialist memorizes (& casts) a spell of his/her school as if they were one level lower (1st level spells don't move down, neither do cantrips). Spells of their 'prohibited' school are treated as two levels higher.
[In addition each caster gets the feat heighten spell for their school only. so they can always choose to improve their spell to its normal level for DCs and so forth.]
[edit: remembered why]
I recently had a near TPK from an 8th level PC Evoker who suddenly had an involuntary change of heart after hasting himself. The whole party went down in 1 round (two fireballs DC 24). Except the monk, he couldn't get through the wizard's sheild to grapple and played 'catch the magic missile & go to negative hit points' the following round.
A 3d6 fireball from a specialist at 3rd level doesn't really bother me but I could see how it could upset others.
Comments?
Two wizards, we'll call them El and Mer are hanging out. They grew up together and studied Divination under the same master (they're both diviners).
Mer was a wise sort of guy and didn't really see the need in making things explode. He can't cast evocation spells. he can't even look at an evocation school and understand it.
El's a Diviner but he loves blowing things up. He's got no knack for enchantment spells. He says its because he's honest For whatever reason Enchantment/Charm spells are Greek to him.
Now, this doesn't make too much sense to me as a story. But it happens all the time in D&D. I'm morally opposed to changing rules unessessarily but I had to wonder if there wasn't a better way that didn't involve a lot of new mechanics.
What if specialization worked like this:
specialists get the same number of spells as wizards of the same level (no bonus spells) however spells of your specialization were easier for you to understand.
A specialist memorizes (& casts) a spell of his/her school as if they were one level lower (1st level spells don't move down, neither do cantrips). Spells of their 'prohibited' school are treated as two levels higher.
[In addition each caster gets the feat heighten spell for their school only. so they can always choose to improve their spell to its normal level for DCs and so forth.]
[edit: remembered why]
I recently had a near TPK from an 8th level PC Evoker who suddenly had an involuntary change of heart after hasting himself. The whole party went down in 1 round (two fireballs DC 24). Except the monk, he couldn't get through the wizard's sheild to grapple and played 'catch the magic missile & go to negative hit points' the following round.
A 3d6 fireball from a specialist at 3rd level doesn't really bother me but I could see how it could upset others.
Comments?
Last edited:
