D&D 3E/3.5 Wizard Schools (3.5 conversion to 4th ed?)

[thepunisher17397]

Hey folks...

Just a question...does anyone either
A) know whether wizards of the coast is going to do a book on the various schools of magic (and not just focus on Necromancer or Illusionist)? Reason is that my group has decided to go 4th edition, but one of the players is stuck as his old character was a summoner from the 3.5 edition....

B) have samples/ideas on a summoner specialist for the Wizard....

-Paul

 

[CapnZapp]

My only advice to you and your group:

Don't expect old characters to convert well.

Simply don't do it. Save yourself a lot of hassle and a rather mediocre result and start over with new characters.

I'm not saying this as a 4E-bash or anything. The latest edition is a huge improvement in several areas, but one thing it does not do well - converting old characters.

Especially wizards. Frankly, you'd better of if you accept that 4E does not have any character class anything like the old Wizard class. The new wizard is best approached as something completely new, with no compatability with the old at all.

Let that 3E wizard remain alive and well in your memories, don't destroy him by trying to convert

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

If, on the other hand, you insist on converting, then there are a few ways that you can go about it.

Go cleric instead. They have several summoning style powers.

Reskin the wizard's powers. Flaming Sphere becomes a nice Fire Elemental, and if your DM is up for it, try switching the keyword on Flaming Sphere to get Ice Demons, Lightning Mephits, Storm Spirits, whatever. You can alos reskin a few other spells into short (one round) duration summonings. Fireball could be Rampage of the Fire Elemental. Thunderwave could be The Storm King's Bull Rush. The Reskin is your friend. The fluff is highly mutable, and a wizard that specialized in summoning could be created using descriptions for common wizard spells. There is no rule about how the game mechanics come to be, just that they work a certain way. You get to decide how te game mechanics manifest. The special effects are all yours, so make them whatever you want.

Or you could try a combination of the two. Go wizard primary, and multiclass into cleric for those summons. Combine Flaming sphere, th bigby's spells, and Astral defenders into the mechanical representation of your character, and then reskin it into a master summoner.

 

[Jib]

I'd settle for just having the "Flavor" of the old Arcane schools. Even as Rituals.

 

[MonkeyMage]

I have found that tweaking the flavor is my biggest tool in 4e. It works for monsters, PCs, powers, etc.

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

If you have a DDI subscription, this month's Ampersand has a few Summoning powers. For a 3rd party solution, you might want to check out the Nature Priest in the Advanced Player's Guide. It has a lot of powers similar to Summoning.

Otherwise, re-fluffing various powers to be summoning is probably the best option.