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View Full Version : [4e] Houserule: Wizard at-will Tweak (PHB1)



Itomon
2010-05-02, 05:11 AM
Wizard is the core of controller role in 4e, and the following rule seeks to boost control effects on wizard at-wills in general.

This was meant to be added to all other wizard rules, so every wizard should have the arcane weight power in addition to her other powers.

Edit #1
Considering what was said, I changed the rules below. Thanks guys for the help!

Arcane Weight
Shatters of spell overwhelm your target like an avenging shadow of your arcane exccel.
At-Will * Arcane
Minor Action - Personal
Special: This power can only used once per round.
Effect: Once during this turn, when you hit a creature with an at-will wizard spell, you may choose one of the following added effects:

1- The hit creature receives a penalty to all defenses against the next attack equals to your Constitution modifier. This penalty is lost if not used before the end of your next turn.

2- The hit creature cannot shift until the end of your next turn. If you have Wis 13+, the hit creature also receives -1 penalty to its speed until the end of your next turn (this penalty cannot reduce one creature's speed below 1).

3- You may slide the hit creature 1 square. The hit creature also takes damage equals to your Dexterity modifier if it moves willingly before the start of your next turn.

4- The hit creature cannot flank, and receives a penalty to opportunity attack rolls equals to your Charisma modifier; these effects last until the end of your next turn.


Best Regards,
Gustavo "Say it Right" Ito

Mordokai
2010-05-02, 05:18 AM
Speed penalty equal to Wisdom modifier seems a little harsh to me. Even low level wizards will slow down his enemies considerably and higher level ones can outright root his enemies to one spot. I know, it's controllers role, but I can't help but consider it too much. But that may be just me.

Otherwise, it seems like an interesting addition to wizard and would maybe be funf to test it.

KillianHawkeye
2010-05-02, 05:30 AM
The Wizard already has more cool stuff than most other classes. Why do you feel it needs more? Do you think the Wizard is somehow worse off than other Controller classes?

tcrudisi
2010-05-02, 06:18 AM
As written, the power is useless. You can't use immediate actions on your own turn, yet the trigger is when you hit a creature. So unless you have an ally that can let you Magic Missile as a free action, you won't be seeing any use out of this.

Obviously, the fix is to make it a free action. The downside is that then this becomes usable against all 100 targets that the wizard hits in a round. Therefore, make it a free action to use and either 1) an encounter power that hits all targets that the Wizard hit with that attack or 2) an at-will that can only be used once a round.

Now for other criticism: Are you really sure you want to do this? That's a huge power gain for an already powerful class. It makes the at-wills stronger than the encounters and many dailies.

Proof: Your #2 becomes basically the same as Booming Blade for Swordmages, except it can hit up to 27 targets while the SM is limited to one target.

Your #3 basically makes a Wizard into a much-nicer Sorcerer. The Wizard can still impose status effects while doing improved damage over the Sorc.

Your #4 is much, much better than a paragon feat, Psychic Lock, which only gives -2 to attacks.

Your #1 is way over the power level of White Lotus Enervation, which gives a -1 to the defense that you hit, and that's considered a solid feat.

I like the ideas but the power level is over 9000!

Kurald Galain
2010-05-02, 06:31 AM
Wizard is the core of controller role in 4e, and the following rule seeks to boost control effects on wizard at-wills in general.
Well, first off, wizards are a strong contender for "best controller" in the books; they don't need the power boost. You are correct to note that most of their at-will powers are not really controlling powers, but this tends to not be an issue in practice, because (1) from level 7 and up, you won't need to use your at-wills very often, and (2) Thunderwave is one of the best at-wills printed, hands down, and offers very good control.

Anyway, regarding your power. Just to nitpick a bit, immediate reactions cannot be used on your own turn, so it should be a free action, probably restricted to one per turn. Also, "wizard at-will attack" is redundant with "spell" and "power". More importantly, the power is too complex. What you are trying to write here is four powers. I would suggest that the wizard picks one and sticks with that.

(1) is a leader power, not a controller power. (2) is probably overpowered: it can easily mean immobilize at moderate levels; to make things simpler, you should simply specify "the target is slowed". (3) is a striker power, not a controller power: it resembles warlock at-wills. (4) is overpowered at high paragon and epic levels.

The easiest way of increasing wizard control is giving them Storm Pillar and Winged Horde as additional at-wills. Failing that, add a simple control rider to Scorching Burst or Magic Missile, possibly at the cost of a feat (noting how many other classes have feats that improve their at-will attacks). Something like "the target may not approach you on its next turn", or "this power creates a zone; creatures ending their turn in the zone take X damage".

Itomon
2010-05-11, 01:08 PM
Thank you guys for giving me directions, I've edited the first post to make things... less crappy.

We can made this houserule through feats, but they can really power up the wizard versatility with at-will spells. I would surely change one Daily power that slides 4 for one at-will that slides 1, if I want to be prepared and with a trick on the sleeve.

Anyway, it may be fun, but it cannot be overpowered (even as a tweak). Please, share our rules knowledge and give me more suggestions to find a way to make wizards nicer in my campaing (that only uses PHB1).

Best Regards,
Itomon

P.S.: And sorry for the bad english, I'm still learning ^^'

valadil
2010-05-11, 01:46 PM
Cool ideas, but I think wizards are powerful enough already. I'd rather see something like this on druids, who really need the help.

Suleman
2010-05-11, 02:25 PM
Being one of the oldest classes around, wizards have enormous feat, power and PP support. I don't think they really need this right now. They do their controller job well.

Kurald Galain
2010-05-11, 03:23 PM
Being one of the oldest classes around, wizards have enormous feat, power and PP support.

Actually, they have even more support than every other PHB class, primarily in Dragon magazine. Perhaps if the designing company was called "Clerics of the Coast" things would have been different.

Mando Knight
2010-05-11, 04:35 PM
Please, share our rules knowledge and give me more suggestions to find a way to make wizards nicer in my campaing (that only uses PHB1).

The easiest way to improve Wizards is to add in more sources. Arcane Power, Dragon, Adventurer's Vaults...

BobTheDog
2010-05-11, 06:14 PM
If you're using only the PHB, perhaps it would be easier to tweak the "less tasty" at-wills. Of course, then we run into the issue of which are those, and how to tweak them. But it's easier than adding a class feature and then having problems when people start using ArcPow/Dragon at-wills.

My thoughts:

Cloud of Daggers is nice as-is. If you feel it needs a boost, make the area difficult terrain, or increase the control damage a bit (Wis + 2).

Magic Missile is, technically, decent. Practically, though, there is not a lot of use for Ranged 20. If you want to tweak, my suggestion is change it to Ranged 10 and add slide 1.

Ray of Frost is tricky. Not shiny on its own, but Cold is a common element of broken combos (pre-errata, that is). This one can be more tasty as a basic attack (essentially making it a choice between this and MM), or adding a "cannot shift" besides being slowed.

Scorching burst is the "damage-only" option. If you want to add control to it, trade some damage in (1d4 or Int only) to make up for it. Defense penalties may work here.

Thunderwave, as Kurald said, is very, very nice. I would not tamper with it.

Of these the one I think would benefit most from a boost is Magic Missile. I always feel it got the short straw from all the "ranged basic attack" controller at-wills. Great-but-often-useless range and no controlleriness.

Mando Knight
2010-05-11, 06:22 PM
Magic Missile has one use in Heroic right now: there's a level 1 Daily in Dragon that allows you to fire it off as a minor action once each round for the rest of the encounter. Can you say Macross Magic Missile Massacre (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacrossMissileMassacre)?

Kurald Galain
2010-05-12, 03:57 AM
Cloud of Daggers. Problem: unless the areas you fight in contain a lot of one-square-wide passages, most enemies will simply be able to move around the cloud, and then you're left with a power that basically says "standard action: one minion dies, no save". This depends on your DM, of course. But I don't recall any one-square-wide passages in WOTC's published adventures, including RPGA.

My suggestion: change the effect to "The power’s area and two squares adjacent to it are filled with sharp daggers of force." This way you can actually use it to block off hallways. Note that this is more-or-less what Storm Pillar does.

Magic Missile. Problem: range 20 is usually irrelevant, and being a ranged basic attack is also usually irrelevant. Other than with wizard's fury, it simply doesn't do much.

My suggestion: adding a push or slide effect could help; that's more-or-less what the Master Wand does, and what Phantom Bolt does. To make it a bit more unique, I would suggest "this spell ignores cover, concealment, and total concealment" (to reflect its auto-hit nature in earlier editions, and note that most wizard spells ignore concealment anyway by virtue of being area effects) or I would make it a "melee 20" attack (which means that 1.it no longer provokes, and 2.it can be triggered by any number of warlord grant-an-attack abilities).

Ray of Frost. Problem: first, slowing is one of the weakest conditions in the book to begin with. Second, slowing is mostly useful in the first rounds of combat (before the enemy is close to you) and that's precisely when you use enconter powers instead. And third, monsters that need slowing tend to be brutes, which have high fortitude.

My suggestion: add "cannot run, charge, or shift" to make the condition do more (in fact, this should be errata to the slow condition itself) and make it target reflex instead of fort.

Scorching Burst. Problem: actually, this is a very good at-will; it's just eclipsed by certain druid and invoker at-wills. Then again, it stacks with enlarge spell. The main issue, then, is that it's really a striker at-will, not a controller one.

My suggestion: "This spell creates a zone that lasts until the end of your next turn. Any enemy that ends its turn in the zone takes fire damage equal to your constitution modifier".