What to do about Specialists?

[Remathilis]

I'm asking this fairly difficult and long question to decide things once and for all...

What should be done about specialist wizards.

The Poll (which is multiple choice) allows for three major styles of specialist

1.) PH style

2.) Turn them into independant 20 level classes balanced against the wizard/sorcerer

3.) Turn them into Prestige Classes

Let me know what you think

 

[Ibram]

1&2 are almost exactly the same. In effect the specalist rules create a different class for each school of magic. And, to be frank, thats the way I prefer it (IMC all wizards Have to be specalists.

 

[ergeheilalt]

Unearthed Arcana has a nice varient, that allows a specialist to give up their familiar, bonus feats, and bonus spells/day in returns for some special abilities. Some of them are cool and some of them are duds, but the player has the choice of which class abilities they swap out.

Erge

 

[Arnwyn]

I like PH style combined with the options in Unearthed Arcana (the ability substitutions).

 

[Mac Callum]

2.) Turn them into independant 20 level classes balanced against the wizard/sorcerer

This would take up WAY too much space in a book. If you want to distinguish them more, you should have one Wizard class, which get's a "Specialist ability" at certan levels. That way you get variations. See how Monte made Totem Warrior and Witch varients in Arcana Unearthed.

3.) Turn them into Prestige Classes

Not too bad an option - would you disallow taking more than one? What about Sorcerers?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'd personally like to see the Unearthed Arcana variant (basically the same as the PHB version, but with a few abilities swapped out) become the norm. Then I'd like to see all specialists made into full and independent 20-level classes as an option in an Unearthed Arcana-style book. In other words, optional and not taking up space in the core rules, but still an actual WotC-published, "official" option.

And if they can't justify doing all specialists that way, just illusionists and necromancers would be fine.

 

[FungiMuncher]

I would prefer a single, 20-level, wizard class, with narrow specialization required from the beginning. As someone advances in the class, they pick up related abilities, or broader spell access.

I really dislike the flavor of the PHB wizards. To me, magic as a field of study is so vast that a beginning PC should start out as a specialist. They would then work towards being a generalist, if that's what they want. Furthermore, the core specialist rules just aren't that... umm, special. They're still "mostly" generalists, with very minor perks.

The UA modifications seems like a step in the right direction. Another option would be adopting cleric-like domains (but a little bit more generous with allowed spells).