Wu Jen - expanded spell list?

[Rickshaw]

long story short, the wu jen spell list is crap. has it been errata-ed at all? if not, what do yall think about expanding the elemental spells available? maybe throwing in a 6th elemental option - electricity?

[Thurbane]

I think the notes at the start of Spell Compendium mention allowing some of the elemental themed spells to be Wu-Jen spells, but doesn't specifically spell out how many or which ones...i.e. up to the DM.

I may be thinking of Shugenja - AFB at the moment.

[Zaq]

My gut says that adding in electricity would kinda hurt the flavor of the class, but then, flavor is mutable. If the GM's cool with helping you do it and it'd help you realize a fun character concept, why should a little thing like prewritten fluff get in your way?

That said, the spell list isn't that bad. It's no Wizard, but if you wanted to be a d4 HD arcane book-caster with the Wizard list, well, we have a class for that. You can still do some perfectly respectable magic with just their default list, though.

[Rickshaw]

the reason I specify electricity is that the character is a little half-dragon muckdweller, son of a Tun Mi Lung - a typhoon dragon. he is also from the "far east" and refuses to speak any language but draconic, etc. so Wu Jen fits quite well. maybe air element would work better?

[GoatBoy]

Since the class is heavily based on the classical East, changing the five element theme would be inappropriate, but electricity spells could easily fall under the Air element.

I believe the Spell Compendium was supposed to be followed by a web supplement with spell lists for non-core base classes, but this was lost in the switch to 4e.

SPC does explicitly say to go be the spell element descriptors when applying them to the Wu Jen. Cold falls under Water, Acid could fall under Metal, and any Druid spell which involves plants could be considered Wood.

So... no errata, use your imagination and existing spell descriptors.

[Zaq]

Since the class is heavily based on the classical East, changing the five element theme would be inappropriate, but electricity spells could easily fall under the Air element.

Inconvenient, then, that the Wu Jen elements are fire, water, earth, wood, and metal.

[arguskos]

Inconvenient, then, that the Wu Jen elements are fire, water, earth, wood, and metal.
They're probably thinking of the Shugenja, who has Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Metal, IIRC.

[Zaq]

They're probably thinking of the Shugenja, who has Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Metal, IIRC.

Just the first four, actually. No metal.

[arguskos]

Just the first four, actually. No metal.
Right, they get the Order of the Ineffable Mystery as their "bonus" element.

[GoatBoy]

the Wu Jen elements are fire, water, earth, wood, and metal.

Gosh-golly-Colonel-Sanders, you're right. I never picked up on that until now. I suppose one could switch the Wu Jen's elemental system to another classical culture, if one were determined to use Air/Electricity/Sky themed spells.

In fact, there's more spells out there with elemental descriptors that aren't on the Wu Jen's spell list than ones that are, so one could probably pick just about any classic element and go with that one.

[Person_Man]

It's not that bad. Wu Jen have any easy time getting increasing their Caster Level (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872350/Raising_Caster_Level) to +5ish or higher (sometimes much much higher) by mid levels via their class ability, a Wu Jen specific magic item, and a couple of feats. If you pick up Energy Substitution (in case you happen to fight an enemy that's immune to your element) and a good prestige class then you should be fine. You're not going to be a Tier 1 Batman, but you will be a fun Tier 3 blaster with some utility and summoning mixed in. If you don't want that, then just play a Wizard rather then trying to shoehorn something different into a class that can't efficiently handle it.

[Forged Fury]

My problem with the Wu-Jen is that many of their unique spells don't work very well. For every Giant Size, you get the Scarf line of spells, almost all of them requiring a ranged attack (not ranged touch attack) to work. Those spells on a poor BAB chasis? Just not really well thought out, IMO.