Wizard with Lore ability

[Bob the Reaver]

In my campaign I would like Wizards to have the Lore ability, much the same as Loremaster prc grants.

My initial thought was to take away the wizards familier or to force wizards to select a school specilization (sp?) and not give the class bonus spells due to said specilization.

Also, what about a sage class. Like the bard but no inspiring music etc.

If anyone has any ideas or could point me to a thread with a similer topic would be very thankful.

 

[Piratecat]

Bob, I'll zoom this over to House Rules.

 

[Kael]

The Midnight campaign setting' channeler class is a good example of what you are talking about. The class is very different from the wizard, but put simply, it decreases the number of spells per day for increased skill points and a bardic knowledge-like ability.

As for the sage class, I occasionally play with a DM who uses a modified version of the expert NPC class that has the bardic knowledge ability. I've never seen it played as a PC though, so I can't tell you how well it works.

 

[Khaalis]

I think the "Bardic Knowledge" for "Familiar" swap is fair. As would be swapping it for "Scribe Scroll". I also think the forced specialization would work, as long as it is simply granting BK at the cost of a school access. I wouldnt add the benefits of specialization on top of it. JMHO - YMMV

 

[Piratecat]

I agree; I'd swap Lore for a familiar.

 

[Li Shenron]

I also agree that Lore for Familiar is quite fair, but both are definitely more worth than a feat so I would not allow Lore in place of just Scribe Scroll. At the same time I'd rather not mess Lore with specialisation...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I wouldn't allow a swap of lore for a familiar as I don't think a familiar normally sees as much use.

What I'd do is get the wizard to drop one school of spells in return for Lore.

Regards,

 

[Liquidsabre]

I'd almost require them to specialize as a Diviner and trade a familiar for the Lore Ability. A Familiar provides every wizard with two feats (alertness + one other feat-equivalent) afterall, how useful is lore anyhow? But a Diviner with the option to switch out their familiar sounds awfully reasonable.

 

[Plane Sailing]

In all our campaigns that include bards we find that bardic lore gets used multiple times every adventure.

Familiars on the other hand, look a lot like this

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=3

Cheers

 

[ARandomGod]

I'd almost require them to specialize as a Diviner and trade a familiar for the Lore Ability. A Familiar provides every wizard with two feats (alertness + one other feat-equivalent) afterall, how useful is lore anyhow? But a Diviner with the option to switch out their familiar sounds awfully reasonable.

Familiars also, eventually, grant an additional (aid another) +2 to all knowledge skills that the master might have. If you've got a familiar with hands, it can also often grant aid another bonuses to many thief skills for the arcane trickster types. For that matter, if the familiar has good enough hands, it can easily wield a wand or other magic item, and force potions down an unconcious master's throat, etc.