Lord Vangarel said:
1) Non specialist wizards to compared specialist wizards - come on, I get to cast an extra spell of each level per day but I can't cast spells from this school with very few really useful spells.
Heh. As opposed to clerics, who receive bonus domain spells automatically without giving up anything? Oh, and they get domain powers along with the bonus spells. In light of this, I feel it would be perfectly reasonable for specialization to be an innate feature of the wizard class, rather than make it an option that wizards have to pay a price for.
2) Any normal class to a prestige class - one of our players tried to convince me that if he was a normal wizard instead of an Alienist he'd be just the same. Yeah, sure, just the same with the Alienist better at everything.
Again, this is a problem with wizards in particular. A prestige class designed for fighters, for instance, isn't going to receive all the fighter bonus feats AND receive additional class abilities, or more skill points, or a good Will or Reflex save. There's a trade-off of some kind. And a cleric prestige class can grant special class features in exchange for receiving a lower hit die, a lowered BAP, or lowering one of its good saves. But the wizard? All he's got is spellcasting, and thus has nothing to pawn off. Having said that, you need to take a closer look at the alienist class. The class actually imposes penalties to compensate for the extra abilities. Let the guy have the darn PrC.
3) Ogres - these guys just ain't scary anymore
Hrrmm. Seem plenty nasty to me, although giants in general do receive a little shaft in the form d8 hit dice. Don't forget to put some armor on them though.
4) Monks - these guys try to be everything and succeed at nothing
The monk isn't the melee-master that a lot of people want it to be. When DM's throw big, super-strong, heavy-hitting monsters against the PC's, the monk doesn't do as well as other warriors, so people decide then and there that monks suck. Well, monks are not supposed to be the best at melee--that's for brute-force types like barbarians--but rather they excel at fighting the types of foes with special attacks that routinely take out the other characters. When the mind flayer starts leveling the fighters with mind blast, or the umber hulk starts driving the barbarians batty, or the beholder starts selectively disintegrating the wizards and fear-raying the warriors, it's the monk who consistently makes every DC 18 saving throw. When the ogre mage cuts loose with the cone of cold, or the lich hastes up and starts dishing out the empowered fireballs, it's the monk that comes out unscathed. True, the Slow Fall ability is pretty lame in light of how easy it is for any character to receive the benefit of Feather Fall, but otherwise a monk pulls its weight if your party DM uses opponents other than giant things with big teeth and claws.
5) Half-elves - no reason to play what used to be the most prolific race
Nope, no reason.
So come on everyone what else got the shaft?
Well, everyone else seems to have ignored this question in favor of telling Lord Vangarel how wrong he is, so let me try to start the ball o'gripes rolling:
1) Wizards need more going for them (see above comments)
2) Elves need focus. If you're going to make their favorite class wizard, then give them racial abilities that are advantageous to wizards. As is, their abilities are more favorable for rangers and other scout-type characters.
Note to Forrester: if you're gonna put in your 2 cents worth here, kindly be less flamey than last time.
3) Druids have no role in the party. Seems to me spells like Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace certainly belong in their repetoire, and following along that line of thought, I think druids would make the ideal buffers (as in "one who applies buffs").
