Tomecaster [3.5 Wizard Variant]

[Drogorn]

Wizard Variant: Tomecaster

A Tomecaster is a wizard who does not prepare spells, but instead casts spells spontaneously from their spellbook.

Class features:
The tomecaster has all the standard wizard class features, except as noted below.

Spell Preparation:
The tomecaster does not prepare his spells in advance. He spends one hour in the morning studying his spellbooks, after which his daily spell slots are refreshed, as a spontaneous caster.

School Specialization:
The tomecaster may specialize in a school. This works like the standard wizard's feature, except that the tomecaster gains no additional spell slots. Instead, the tomecaster learns one extra spell, which must be of that school, each time he gains a level.

Spellcasting:
The tomecaster casts spells directly from his spellbook, not from his memory. To cast a spell, the tomecaster must be able to read desired spell in its entirety from his spellbook, whether he is holding it or through some other method. He may cast any spell in that particular spellbook in this manner, as long as he has some method of viewing all pages of the spell(whether turning the pages or some other method). Casting a spell consumes one of the tomecaster's spell slots of that spell's level.

Metamagic:
A tomecaster may modify his spells with metamagic feats as a spontaneous caster. This normally causes the spell's casting time to increase. However, the tomecaster may also scribe a metamagic modified spell into a spellbook, consuming pages and incurring costs as a spell of its new spell slot. By doing so, he will take no casting time penalty when casting the spell.

[Bagel]

by the rules isn't it on page per spell per level, so he would have to be able to read 9 pages in a standard action to cast a 9th level spell....

other than that i like the flavor of this variant :)

[RaggedAngel]

This is... very, very powerful, but it does match up with the iconic image of a wizard holding a tome during a fight, whereas in normal DnD that's a silly and dangerous thing to do.

I feel like the weakness of this varient (your spellbook is now a target) is only something that comes up if you have the kind of DM that bothers with spellbooks and material components during combat. If they don't this is almost always superior to a standard wizard, though you can't really Gish it up very well.

[unosarta]

Memorized Jinx
Prerequisites: Tomecaster Variant Wizard, Spellcraft 8 ranks, School Specialization
Benefits: The Tomecaster has memorized a certain spell, and no longer needs to read it from a spell book in order to cast it. The Tomecaster may choose a single spell that he knows that is not of the highest level spell that he can cast while he studies his spell books in order to refresh his spell slots. He does not need to read from his spell book in order to cast the memorized spell, only spend a spell slot of the equivalent spell level as the spell he memorized. The spell remains memorized until the Tomecaster chooses to memorize another. The memorized spell must be of the School that the Tomecaster has specialized in. In addition, the DC of the spell increases by 2 when the Tomecaster casts it from memory.

Just a feat I whipped up.

[Morph Bark]

This is similar to what I've done for NPC wizards in my campaigns. Prettymuch the only real difference is that I kept school specialization the same.

[jiriku]

If I was playing a wizard, I would give up my entire WBL for the game just to have Tomecaster and a boccob's blessed book.

[Morph Bark]

If I was playing a wizard, I would give up my entire WBL for the game just to have Tomecaster and a boccob's blessed book.

Don't forget going into Geometer. 9th-level spells on just 1 page? Yum.

[Drogorn]

If I was playing a wizard, I would give up my entire WBL for the game just to have Tomecaster and a boccob's blessed book.

Sounds like a good target for a dispel magic.


Don't forget going into Geometer. 9th-level spells on just 1 page? Yum.

This concerns me. Any suggestions?

[Morph Bark]

This concerns me. Any suggestions?

Considering Geometer requires prepared spellcasting, I'd say you don't qualify with this variant, but there might be ways to get around that.

[jiriku]

Sounds like a good target for a dispel magic.

Except that you'd be Schrodinger's wizard. Any spell you have, you can cast. Celerity, duelward, swift etherealness, even wings of cover if you can get it on your list... or a pre-cast contingency. There's just no end to the number of ways a spontaneous wizard can protect himself. You'd be immune to everything except your own lapses in judgment.

Edit: Why is it bad to have 9th level spells on one page? Turning pages is a free action, right? A tomecaster gains no special advantage by having a spell fit on one page.

[Morph Bark]

Edit: Why is it bad to have 9th level spells on one page? Turning pages is a free action, right? A tomecaster gains no special advantage by having a spell fit on one page.

The benefit is having 9 level 9 spells "prepared" in place of 1.

[Flickerdart]

It's a move action to take an item out of a Bag of Holding or Heward's Handy Haversack. Scribing room is never an issue, since you can just take out another book.

[Randomguy]

This would be the same as giving a sorcerer an unlimited amount of spells known and a wizard's spell slots: completely overpowered.

The idea isn't too bad though: What if it was more like a spirit shaman: Let the tomecaster be like a sorcerer who selects his spells known from a spellbook each day.

[jiriku]

The benefit is having 9 level 9 spells "prepared" in place of 1.

I see. But wouldn't you just have all of your 8th and 9th level spells scribed into a loregem anyway, and be shapechanged into a behir or a spellgaunt with girallon's blessing and be holding like five spellbooks anyhow?

[Ashtagon]

In my house rules, I allow wizards to cast any spell from their books, but the casting time becomes a minimum of one minute per spell level (or the spell's own casting time if higher).

Most wizards then memorise spells that they expect to need to cast quickly, and carry a travel spell book with those utility spells.

[Phosphate]

There's another way of handling this. *check the chanter in my sig*
You can have the wizard read the spell from his spellbook, and then have said spell in his memory for a period of time and be able to use it in that period (without "forgetting" it after use, though it still depletes slots). Balances it, I guess.

[YeahSameToYou]

A player in one of my games has always been tormenting me to have something like this, and I've added some things for balance:
Cantrips can be cast the same round they are chanted, but all other spells require rounds of chanting=the spell's level. On top of that, they can only scribe two spells (from scrolls) into their spell-book/level, instead of gaining sudden knowledge of them every level.
You can give your Tomecaster scrolls as loot in a dungeon, but then you're picking out every little spell they get, so I usually put him in a situation where he can only get one of a small list of spells, giving more customization.

This helped me fight the insane power curve, so yeah.