Yet another attempt at making a Wizard fix (PEACH!)

[Melamoto]

First off, I would like to say I am not a particularly good homebrewer, and I am not a very good optimizer.

Second first off, keep this in mind as you read this:
This is not a well thought out, carefully designed fix. I have come up with a basic idea, and I figured this would be the best place to get it evaluated for what it is so far. Think of this as the "Alpha" stage.

Anyways, on to the design part:

You may only have 1 Contingency of any kind at a time. This includes crafted contingencies, and does not only apply to contingencies on yourself.
Spells with durations may only last for a maximum amount of time equal to 20 times the base multiplier (The value multiplied by the Caster Level for the total duration).
A Wizard may only use 1 spellbook at a time. To write spells into and prepare spells from another spellbook, the Wizard must focus on the spellbook for 24 hours, and afterwards may use the spellbook normally. However, the same ritual must be performed to switch back to using the Wizard's old spellbook.
All spells that duplicate or cast other spells (With the exception of Wish and Limited Wish) do not exist.
With the exception of Circle Magic, it is impossible to have a caster level higher than your HD.
All spells which would normally grant an absolute immunity (Such as Energy Immunity, Death Ward, or Mind Blank) now require a caster level check to penetrate. The DC is equal to The defensive spell’s Caster Level + The Spell Level + 10.
No more than 3 Metamagic feats may be applied to the same spell.
No Celerity.

Spells known:

Wizards now learn 3 free spells instead of 2 every level the wizard learns a new spell level, and begins play knowing 6 spells.

A Wizard must allocate up to 6 slots to be filled for potential spells known. Each slot may be used to make a single spell from a single school of magic available to learn. Multiple slots may be used in the same school. These apply separately to each level of spell, but they must not be the same. For example, Mialee the Wizard wants to be a Transmuter with summoning and offensive capabilities. She decides to assign 3 slots to the Transmutation school, and 3 slots to conjuration 2 slots to the Conjuration school and 1 slot to the Evocation school. This means that at any given spell level she may have a maximum of 3 transmutation school spells known, 2 conjuration and 1 evocation. She may otherwise learn spells normally. These limits do not apply to extra spells gained from writing them directly into the Wizard’s spellbook.

All spells gained from being written directly into the Wizard’s spellbook require 12 hours worth of time per spell level and an amount of gold pieces shown on the table below. These costs (Both time and gold) may not be reduced or subsumed in any way.

Costs for new spells:

{table]Spell Level|Gold Piece cost|Original cost
0th level|500|100
1st level|1000|100
2nd level|4000|200
3rd level|9000|300
4th level|16000|400
5th level|25000|500
6th level|36000|600
7th level|49000|700
8th level|64000|800
9th level|81000|900[/table]

Note: Yes, I know these are very expensive. However, I thought that extra spells were being handed out too easily, and wanted to limit it. For a level 20 Wizard, 3rd level spells and lower are nothing to gain, but a few extra 9th level spells will be costly.


Well, that's it for now. I have the feeling that this won't do too much to Wizards at high levels and will cripple them at lower levels, but that's what I have you lovely forum folks for. Just don't post if you genuinely think that the Wizard wasn't very broken before and that a fix like this is unnecessary.
And please, I know that other spellcasters are barely touched in this fix. I'll take a look at that later, Wizards are the ones I really care about right now.

[Yora]

I've often read, and it seems to make quite some sense, that the problem with wizard, when there is an actual problem, is not about how many spells they have, but about which spells they have.
Making it more complicated to get or change spells will be an inconvenience for low-cheese players, but won't do anything to prevent over the top exploits.

In my oppinion, the best idea would be to modify the wizards spell list. Set some spells to higher levels and take others out completely. Unfortunately, few spells are really that much broken when you just look at them, but can turn problematic if you combine them with other spells, feats, and items. So finding the spells that cause trouble is the tricky part.

[Melamoto]

I increased the base number of spells that Wizards have at the cost of reduced versatility. Or at least that was my goal. Make all Wizards very specialized. I made getting new spells so expensive because I wanted it to be a way for Wizards to get a few extra spells they normally couldn't with my new system, without removing it's point.

I tried to cut down on the Versatility of Wizards, and cut down on the number of Improved Metamagic Arcane Thesis Empowered Maximised Split Ray Godmode Twinned Burninating Heightened Autokilling Sanctumed Enervations flying around. Also, I forgot to do something about Contingency.

[I_Got_This_Name]

Why would you nerf Death Ward and Mind Blank?

The immunities aren't the problem. The immunities are actually more of the solution.

Taking off Death Ward (or nerfing it to be penetrable) doesn't make casters less powerful relative to fighters, it makes casters more powerful, since the casters are generally using save-or-die effects more than the fighters are. Nerfing death ward just makes killing the party easier, since now monsters have a good chance of their save or dies working, when otherwise they wouldn't work on a prepared party.

[Myou]

The problem with casters isn't really the casting classes, it's the spells they cast. To fix casters you have to change perhaps 75% of all the spells in the game. This is why there are no standard fixes, and why Pathfinder failed to balance things - as long as there's even one all-powerful spell like Shapechange casters have the advantage.

I personally have stopped worrying about that. Gentleman's agreement and all that.

[Kallisti]

Yeah, I'm going to join the chorus here. The wizard class itself is not the problem. The fact that it gets bonus feats and sorceror doesn't is really stupid, but that's easily fixed by giving sorcerors the bonus feats. The problem is the spells themselves. Even if you remove Celerity, anyspell, time stop, wish, limited wish, shapechange, and limit metamagic, you'll still get people one-shotting dragons with Shivering Touch or whatever it's called from Frostburn. If you take that, too? Just cast exolisive runes on a piece of paper--many, many times. Prevent that? Well...

...there are just too many problematic spells. I think the only fix for spellcasters would be to remove every single spell, then allow them back in on a case-by-case basis. Make your spellcasters get GM approval for every spell.


Why would you nerf Death Ward and Mind Blank?

The immunities aren't the problem. The immunities are actually more of the solution.

Taking off Death Ward (or nerfing it to be penetrable) doesn't make casters less powerful relative to fighters, it makes casters more powerful, since the casters are generally using save-or-die effects more than the fighters are. Nerfing death ward just makes killing the party easier, since now monsters have a good chance of their save or dies working, when otherwise they wouldn't work on a prepared party.
I wondered the same thing myself.

You have some good ideas, but changing the class is just not the way to fix the wizard.