Wizards, Armour and the Collective Consciousness

[TarionzCousin]

In all the campaigns I've run, we have compromised: only left-handed wizards can wear armor.

 

[Dausuul]

My problem is not with the published rules on wizards - it's with the published rules on clerics. I think they're WAY overpowered in 3.5, to the extent that at the levels of play we stay at, there's NO POINT playing a wizard, because they have NO significant area of advantage over clerics, whereas clerics have plenty over them. Sure, wizards have some spells that clerics don't, but the best spells are common to both, IMHO.

What spells are you talking about here?

I agree that clerics are grossly overpowered in 3.X. I do not agree that wizards are any less overpowered.

Somewhere, a fighter and a monk are crying.

 

[NerfedWizard]

Monster Summoning, and in 3rd (less so 3.5) Bull's Strength etc. - there are more, and Druids share some of the guilt, but that's a start. And some Cleric spells are pretty horrendous with no direct Wizard equivalent (e.g. Implosion).

 

[OldGreybeard]

NfWz: Using Implosion as an example is pants, when the highest level D&D game we have played is 10th level, i believe what you needed to do as a Wizard, was use spells in a versatile and varying way. the fact is that when you played a Wizard or Sorcerer you got killed before you reached 5th level(he played a cleric to 10th), he died because he was the first into the room ahead of the Fighters.

He also ignored suggestions that Wizards should hang back to attack from range, saying that was old fashioned, he just wanted to be first in, and if it goes wrong blame the DM, the Rules and everyone else for not getting in quick enough to save his life.

Now maybe we should start a thread on: "Do you think Wizards should be the first characters into every room" i bet the Poll on that one would be a resounding No!!!!!
This is why he wants Wizards to wear Armour so he can carry on clearing out dungeons singlehandedly.

Don`t know why he wants to Nerf Clerics if someone else plays one he gets the benefit of their curing spells and they aren`t half as crafty as he is.

 

[RFisher]

My problem is not with the published rules on wizards - it's with the published rules on clerics. I think they're WAY overpowered in 3.5, to the extent that at the levels of play we stay at, there's NO POINT playing a wizard, because they have NO significant area of advantage over clerics, whereas clerics have plenty over them.

()

In all the campaigns I've run, we have compromised: only left-handed wizards can wear armor.

(^_^)

I’m tempted to actually use that sometime.

A good excuse to resurrect the method of determining handedness I used to use: Roll a d20 & a d6. If the d6 > the d20, your PC is left-handed. If they’re equal, your PC is ambidextrous.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

FWIW, the continued reference to Elric as an armored spellcaster is somewhat misleading. As others have pointed out, his use of magic is most often outside of combat, what most would call "ritual" magic. And AFAIK, we have no reference that he wears armor when conducting his magic rituals.

The few magical effects he uses immediately proceeding or during melee are generally invocations/prayers to higher powers with which he or his people have special relationships- Arioch or Straasha, for instance. Not so much the working of magi as the someone asking for enforcement of a pact- in D&D terms, not unlike what Binders or divine casters do.

 

[Nellisir]

Frankly, I think the OP's real issue is that he can only play a character (apparently any character) -one- way. Setting aside the issue of whether or not wizard spells suck (cough cough), it's apparent he uses the same spells regardless of his class - and in that light, clerics are better.

The wizard's spell list is, of course, insanely more versatile and customizable than a cleric's spell list, but that's not important.

Actually, here's what I think. I think the OldGreyBeard should ban all buff and similar spells from his campaign (focusing on spells shared between classes). It'd be an interesting game, and the OP will get to expand his viewpoint a little bit. I strongly suggest someone picks up the Spell Compendium.

 

[Nellisir]

Orlando Furioso - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Atlantes (Sorcerer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) (Doesn't mention armour, but if memory serves, he wears it.)

Which reminds me that there is a spellcasting (evil) knight in armour in one of the William Morris novels; I think it is The Wood Beyond the World (The Wood Beyond the World - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), which is a novel that I recommend for interesting D&D ideas.

EDIT: I'm wrong; it is The Water of the Wondrous Isles (The Water of the Wondrous Isles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), also worth reading for D&D ideas......perhaps more so than The Wood Beyond the World.
RC

I just downloaded these - thanks for giving me something new (and free) to read!

(Everything RC mentions above is public domain and available through Project Gutenberg - William Morris; 1834-1896)