[3.5] Dragonlance and the Ultimate Magus

[One Step Two]

Hello everyone,

I have a question to ask, but it needs a little background first, so please bare with me.

I was chatting to my DM the other day, and we were discussing the Ultimate Magus and how it would be viewed in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. What we sort of came to, was the fact that such a thing would be... unique, and not likely to happen for a few hundred years into the Age of Mortals, as the practice of Primal Sorcerery became more commonplace, and the fact that High Sorcerery (Wizardry) is something seen as being entirely incompatible.

All that aside, there's a Race Unique to Dragonlance called called the Irda, or High Ogre. It is a +2 LA race that offers -2 Con, +2 Int and +2 Cha, some spell-like abilites, and the change shape ability, it is a Humanoid with the Ogre and, Shapechanger subtypes (Races of Ansalon).

What makes this interesting is the Racial Alternate Class feature for Wizard, Abaqua Spell Power. By giving up the ability to have a Familiar, they gain the spell slots per day a Wizard one level higher than normal. Thus an Irda Wizard 2, can cast 2nd level spells with a CL of 2. This is meant to offset the +2 LA a little. However, my DM uses LA buyoff. So at the moment, my current Irda Wizard, when he finishes buying off his LA, will aquire a spell level ahead of other wizards. To my DM, this is perfectly fine, as the High Ogres were the original and most powerful casters in the Age of Dreams.

I've been wondering how this unique, and quite frankly powerful, racial class feature could be applied to the Ultimate Magus.

Any ideas playgrounders?

[ArqArturo]

I would be rather careful with this, especially if there's players that are big fans of Dragonlance, at least that's been my experience when trying to bring something 'different' into the game.

Other than that, I know little of spellcasters outside of High Wizardry in Dragonlance history, but maybe within the Legion of Steel, but not in the books.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Forget about using Sorcerer, just make a mix of Beguiler (PH2) and Wizard. Beguiler is like an Illusionist/Enchanter with Rogue skills, it's an Int-based spontaneous casting class. There shouldn't be any setting-specific incompatibility between those at all.

[One Step Two]

I would be rather careful with this, especially if there's players that are big fans of Dragonlance, at least that's been my experience when trying to bring something 'different' into the game.

Other than that, I know little of GISHes in Dragonlance history, but maybe within the Legion of Steel, but not in the books.

Oh, certainly, this is somethign we see, if someone does it in game, likely to suffer the wrath of a few different organisations, depending on how it's done. Most likely a Renegade evading the Towers of High Sorcerery, at the very least, if you try and do it without their consent, and every single Skull and or Thorn knight would want to crack your skull open and find out how that works.


Forget about using Sorcerer, just make a mix of Beguiler (PH2) and Wizard. Beguiler is like an Illusionist/Enchanter with Rogue skills, it's an Int-based spontaneous casting class. There shouldn't be any setting-specific incompatibility between those at all.

I was looking at a few guides, Using Beguiler 1/Wizard 2 is actually possible because you have Second level spells thanks to Abaqua spell power, but still missing the skill requirement to dip into UM early.

That said, with Straight Beguiler 1/Wizard 4/UM 10, and not using Practiced Spellcaster, I'd have the spellcasting of an 11th level Beguiler and a 12th level Wizard thanks to Abaqua spell power. Which means I'd be sliding into 9th level spells by 20th.

With practiced Spellcaster and Abaqua Spell power, it would be Beguiler 9th, and wizard 14th, and getting the 9th level spells by 18th, so I've only "Lost" 1 wizard caster level in the traditional sense. Am I getting that right?

[Psyren]

LA-buyoff is built on the assumption that racial abilities matter less/decrease in power as the level of the game increases. It prevents players from falling behind their party members as the racial bonuses are de-emphasized/overshadowed by the other mechanics of the game.

The ability you describe though appears to scale with level, simply because spells themselves scale with level. If you have 5ths when everyone else is on 4ths, you'll enjoy a significant advantage. So for a race with a power like this, I'm not sure letting it buy off all its LA is the most balanced approach.

[Vertharrad]

Whether Primal Sorcery is commonplace or not in Krynn it is incompatible with High Sorcery. One is governed by the 3 Magic Gods and the other was a side effect of Chaos being in the world...iirc. I'm kinda one of those guys you were talking about, but only because I like staying within the bounds of the world, not from any fanatical joy of DL but from having been the one who always gets dissed when the rules are broken. From what I understand the magic types(arcane/divine) first don't mix and their subtypes really don't mix. You either are one or the other...now if you wanted to ditch the pretense just not use any campaign specific stuff, rename everything campaign specific and then do whatever you want. You now have a DL like world without having the fanboys and conservatives going nuts.

That aside I second what Psyren has said about it. In fact with a bonus like that I wouldn't let you buy any of the LA off.