Wizard with Spirit Shaman Spellcasting

[Celeblas]

So I'm currently tinkering around a little bit with the core classes to adjust them for my own campaign setting. After playing Mask of the Betrayer I had a closer look at the spirit shaman from Complete Divine and somehow his way of casting spells is quite fascinating.

My idea is to give a wizard the same way of spellcasting with dependency on Intelligence (highest spell level) and Charisma (saving throw DCs). Opposed to the spirit shaman the wizard still shall rely on his spellbook and therefore can only "retrieve" spells he has transcribed to it. Given this limitation I want to raise the number of "Spell Retrieved per Day".
But to which extend? Any opinions would be welcome .

Greetings
Celeblas

 

[Terraism]

If you can, you may find the Sha'ir class in the Dragon Compendium to do much of what you're looking for - it models a trained, intelligent caster who calls spirits and has them retrieve the magic for him.

 

[Celeblas]

Thanks for the hint, but the Sha'ir's way of casting is a little bit to complicated in my opinion.

My goal is to remove the Sorcerer (but still retain specialized versions like Beguiler, Dread Necromancer and Warmage) and make the Wizard a more spontaneous caster. The Spirit
Shaman's way of casting seems to be the best approach, but I want to retain the limitation of a Wizard's spellbook.

I probably will use the Wizard's spells per day and the Spirit Shaman's spells retrieved per day.

 

[Nifft]

Check out the Favored Mystic of Selene (in the Gathered Nifftyness link in my .sig).

Cheers, -- N

 

[SelcSilverhand]

I'm playing a mid level spirit shaman now and my DM had to make a tweak to the spell casting to make him more viable as the groups primary spellcaster. We ended up doubling the number of spells retrieved, but left the number of spells per day alone. It has worked out fairly well so far for us.

You will end up slightly more powerful than a standard wizard with this setup since you can retrieve and cast more per day than a comparable wizard can.

You might consider allowing the bonus from having a high ability score count towards the number of spells per day you can retrieve and not just to how many you can cast per day. That would give you 1-2 extra slots and can scale as you get more powerful.

 

[Valdrax]

I probably will use the Wizard's spells per day and the Spirit Shaman's spells retrieved per day.

I would not recommend doing both this and requiring them to have a dual-stat casting dependency. Nerfing the spells a spontaneous caster gets from 6 to 4 and tacking on a dual-stat dependency seems like overkill, especially in light of all the neat and cool bonus powers that a Spirit Shaman gets beyond their spellcasting.

Also, how are you handling specialization?

 

[Celeblas]

@Nifft
Nice base class but I think three stats for spellcasting a little bit too much .

@SelcSilverhand
The bonus to retrieved spells might be a good idea. I'll give it a thought.

@Valdrax
Ok thats a good point I neclected. Somehow I was worried that the limitation imposed by "spells retrieved" woul not affect a wizard very much. Now I had a closer look at the Spells per Day table of the wizard class and given that a normal wizard can prepare about 1-7 different spells per level at higher levels the spirit shaman's spellcasting seems to be balanced.


My new wizard is modeled after the Master Specialist (Complete Mage, page 70). Every wizard chooses a "field of expertise" at first level namely one school of magic and gains the "immediate magic" benefit (describedin PHB2 68). This replaces the familiar, which can be aquired through a feat as can a "staff familiar" (described in Dragon 338).

My current (work in progress version) looks like this:

Hit-Die: d4.
BAB: as wizard.
Fort, Ref, Will: as wizard.
Spellcasting: As spirit shaman (Int determines highest spell level, Cha determines DC of spells).

[b]Lvl[/b]   [b]Class Feature[/b]
  1   Field of expertise, Scribe Scroll
  2   Expanded spellbook
  3   
  4   
  5   Spell Focus (Field of expertise), expanded spellbook
  6   Skill Focus (Knowledge any)
  7   Minor school esoterica
  8   Expanded spellbook
  9   Caster level increase +1 (Field of expertise)
 10   Moderate school esoterica
 11   Expanded spellbook
 12   Caster level increase +2 (Field of expertise)
 13   Major school esoterica
 14   Expanded spellbook
 15   Bonus feat
 16   
 17   Expanded spellbook
 18   
 19   
 20   Bonus feat, expanded spellbook

Field of Expertise: Choose one school of magic and gain the benefit described in PHB2 page 68. Choose one opposed school (except for Divination). You cast spells from this school at -1 caster level and cannot learn spells from this school when gaining a level.
Scribe Scroll: Bonus Feat
Expanded Spellbook: Choose one spell from your field of expertise and add it to your spellbook without further costs involved.
Spell Focus (Field of Expertise): Gain Spell Focus in the school chosen as your field of expertise.
Minor School Esoterica: see Complete Mage page 70.
Caster level increase: You cast spells from your field of expertise at a higher caster level.
Moderate School Esoterica: see Complete Mage page 71.
Major School Esoterica: see Complete Mage page 71.
Bonus Feat: As wizard bonus feats, but also includes any reserve feat.