Yet another wizard fix (YAWF)

[Inevitability]

I'd be surprised if it hasn't been thought of before, but how about the following wizard fix:

The 'specialist' classes, like beguiler and warmage, are seen as tier 3 or 4. IMO, that should be about the average power level for classes.

So what if we did the following:

At first level, wizards choose one school of magic. Their spell list consists of all wizard spells of that school. Wizards can cast every spell on this list spontaneously, just like dread necromancers, beguilers, and the like.

Wizards also choose a second school. Every time they gain access to a new spell level, they add one spell of the second school to their spell list.

So, what tier would this wizard be? What do you think of it?

[sideswipe]

this would make them quite sub par. beguilers get 2 schools (ish) and they get a few other nice goodies and more skill points and hp (blah blah) so adding to your fix, keep what you just said, and add sorcerers spells per day. and maybe 2 spells added per level. (though if you use my next suggestion ignore those last two bits.)

another problem is your whole "gets all spells of that school" beguilers have an actual list and are balanced.

if you said all spells from 1 school the wizard would have access to about 50 spells of each level untill about 6th and then about 20 of each level after and be able to cast any spontaneously. so how about something along the lines of -

at level 1 they gain access to all cantrips of their chosen school. on top of that they gain int mod 1st level spells from their chosen school. they also gain int mod spells from other schools. (giving them usually around 4-5 1st level their school and 4-5 from outside it). each level they gain int mod spells known (of which half rounded up must be from thier chosen school e.g. if they get 5 3 must be from their school). this gives them a finite amount and would make them still a strong class.

[atomicwaffle]

Play the Dragonlance Campaign Setting.

Problem solved.

[torrasque666]

Play the Dragonlance Campaign Setting.

Problem solved.

Can you explain that for someone who is not very experienced with Dragonlance?

[sideswipe]

Can you explain that for someone who is not very experienced with Dragonlance?

yes not all of us care for campaign books and are not up to scratch with them. we always play our own worlds and setting (usually inc. gods). so an explanation would be good

[Dread_Head]

I'd be surprised if it hasn't been thought of before, but how about the following wizard fix:

The 'specialist' classes, like beguiler and warmage, are seen as tier 3 or 4. IMO, that should be about the average power level for classes.

So what if we did the following:

At first level, wizards choose one school of magic. Their spell list consists of all wizard spells of that school. Wizards can cast every spell on this list spontaneously, just like dread necromancers, beguilers, and the like.

Wizards also choose a second school. Every time they gain access to a new spell level, they add one spell of the second school to their spell list.

So, what tier would this wizard be? What do you think of it?

It depends which school you choose, Conjuration or Transmutation specialists picking up some Abjuration spells each level are still going to be Tier 1 strong just due to the strength and depth of those schools. Whereas the other schools would be pretty weak (Tier 4 or 5 mostly) although if they picked up the right spells from other schools could still hit tier 3 or maybe 2.

[HammeredWharf]

Dragonlance Wizards have to take a crappy PRC that bans an extra school.

On topic, this would make Wizards less powerful overall, but wouldn't nerf the worst offenders. When you have Conjuration and Transmutation, you don't need anything else.

[One Step Two]

In the Dragonlance Campaign Setting, If you are a Wizard capable of casting 3rd level spells you must become a Wizard of High Sorcery, or be hunted as a renegade. Each order requires specialization in one of two schools which the orders favour as follows.
White: Abjuration and Divination.
Red: Illusion and Transmutation.
Black: Enchantment and Necromancy.

Before you take your test, you need to be specialised on one of the schools of the order of your choice, banning two schools from any of the four not of your order.
When you pass your test, you need to then ban a third school of Magic, earning you a +1 to Caster level and DCs of your chosen school, once again banning from the other Order's favoured Schools (except divination). The Class has a host of interesting features, but nothing truly game-breaking, and unique abilities depending on the order you choose. It can be a little hard to deal with, especially when there are things like having to deal with changing the colour of your robes due to story reasons, since you need to essentially re-build your character, depending on what your GM interprets changing orders as. The Age of Mortals Source book for Dragonlance gives the option for generalist wizards to join and order, but they get no benefits of enhanced specialization.

Does this balance a Wizard? Sort of. Does it pigeon-hole them? Definitely. The orders Fall into Alignment codes, Good for white, Neutral for Red, and Evil for black. So if you want to play a non-evil Enchanter, nope. Want to be an evil Transmuter? Also no. It can be a little irksome for some. For others, it's the flavour of Dragonlance.