Sorcerer's Specialized Schools? 3.5

[DementedFellow]

We all know that in 3.x, Sorcerers don't get much love. Wizards qualify easily for the neato PrCs. And a Master Specialist wizard can end up with more spells per day than a sorcerer can.

So how much would it change the game to allow the Sorcerer to specialize in much the same way a wizard does? Would it end up making him completely moot or would it allow him to be closer to the Wizard in terms of power?

[Dr.Epic]

Well it would make them more powerful. Bigger bonus to certain spells, and given their limited selection, odds are they'd have a school or two they weren't casting from already.

[Crasical]

This is strongly just my opinion, but...
I think it would be more fitting for a sorcerer to have something like a cleric's Domain than to have a spell school specialization. Wizards specialize because they are focusing their energy on a specific facet of magic that interests them to the exlusion of all others, Sorcerers just -are- magic, no matter how many people play them as a different flavor of wizard, they aren't. Sorcerers have innate magic from far-divine ancestry or some sort of magical mutation, and should probably have a suite of themed abilities to hammer that point home.

[Belril Duskwalk]

This is strongly just my opinion, but...
I think it would be more fitting for a sorcerer to have something like a cleric's Domain than to have a spell school specialization. Wizards specialize because they are focusing their energy on a specific facet of magic that interests them to the exlusion of all others, Sorcerers just -are- magic, no matter how many people play them as a different flavor of wizard, they aren't. Sorcerers have innate magic from far-divine ancestry or some sort of magical mutation, and should probably have a suite of themed abilities to hammer that point home.

Which is actually a reasonably good description of how Pathfinder handled the sorcerer. Sorcerers descended from dragons get things like energy resistance to their particular dragon-species energy type, or claw attacks. Sorcerers coming from undead tainting get powers over the undead and touch attacks that cause people to become shaken. I quite like the result, it ends up with sorcerers that are clearly descended from a particular form of magical being and who are notably different from one another because of it.

[Psyren]

Just give them the wizard progression. There's no reason for them to be a level behind; having limited spells known and casting based off a less useful stat are disadvantage enough.

With that, they'd catch up with FS Wizards in spells/day.

[RaggedAngel]

Just give them the wizard progression. There's no reason for them to be a level behind; having limited spells known and casting based off a less useful stat are disadvantage enough.

With that, they'd catch up with FS Wizards in spells/day.

This, so very much. I never understood what the WotC were thinking on that one:

"Okay, so this class represents a mage that studies texts and uses formulae to cast spells. This other class represents a mage that has magic inherent in their blood and soul. Let's give the first class a much greater proficiency with metamagic, to represent their studies, and give the second class a slower progression, to represent how I was dropped as a child."

[Endarire]

Because Andy Collins, the creator of the Sorcerer, hated it.

[nyjastul69]

Because Andy Collins, the creator of the Sorcerer, hated it.

Source citation please? Andy Collins is listed as a contributor to both 3.0 and v.3.5 of the D&D game. I have never heard from any official source that he created the sorcerer class alone. :smallconfused:

[Zaq]

Because Andy Collins, the creator of the Sorcerer, hated it.

I have heard a charge like this leveled at damn near everyone listed at the front of the PHB, and I've never seen a source for any of it (which would make some damn interesting reading). "Skip hates Sorcerers." "Andy hates Sorcerers." "Monte hates Sorcerers." Do we have any proof for any of this? Yes, OK, someone (or several someones) at WotC really didn't get the whole balance of the Sorcerer, and it's painfully obvious that Sorcs get the short end of the wand time and time again. No argument there. But do we have any real proof that this was the fault of any specific designer? Any blogs to that effect, any articles, any interviews, anything? If so, please, bring them forward, because I genuinely think they'd be interesting to read. Really, though, this whole "X hates Sorcerers" thing keeps popping up time and time again, and every time, I can only envision a big ol' [Citation needed] after it.

Again, there's no contesting that WotC, at the very least, heavily overestimated the value of spontaneous casting. I just keep seeing fingers pointed at one designer or another, and that seems a little bit unjustified without some kind of sources.