New Arcane School: Tychomancy (luck magic)

[AetherShift]

I would love thoughts on this.


Arcane School: Tychomancy

Stack the Odds – At second level you gain the Lucky feat. Your allies also benefit from your good luck. Whenever an ally within 30 feet makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional d20. You can choose to spend one of your luck points after they roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the ally’s attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.

Lace with Misfortune – At sixth level, whenever a creature fails it’s saving throw against a spell you’ve cast, that creature also suffers an unfortunate stroke of bad luck. Roll a D6 and consult the table:
1. The creature is blinded for one round.
2. The creature is deafened for one round.
3. The creature is confused (as the confusion spell) for one round.
4. The creature falls prone and takes 1d4 points of damage.
5. The creature drops whatever it is holding.
6. Reroll twice, ignoring all instances of 6.

Fate Bender – At tenth level your Lucky feat grants you 6 luck points rather than 3. Whenever you roll a die for weapon damage or to determine a variable effect for a spell you’ve cast, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional die of the same type. You can choose to spend one of your luck points after the die is rolled but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the dice to use.

Magus of Chance – When you reach fourteenth level you now regain expended luck points whenever you finish a short rest. As long as you have at least one luck point remaining, enemies have disadvantage on attack rolls against you.

[Amnoriath]

Well, to put it simply it is way overpowered. Not only is Stack the Odds simply better Portent it is Lucky+. No single, non-scaling feature is better in every way than a good feat, especially one at level 2. Then you have an additional passive control on anything you cast with a save that will always do something bad unless of course it is immune or irrelevant. Again Fate Bender is better than the Divination school's capstone. Then your capstone makes your luck too reliable while giving at flat disadvantage against anyone attacking you. While they are simple to understand this is all way too mechanical and stacks up way too much to be in a single subclass on a Wizard of all classes.

[JNAProductions]

Seconded. This is blatantly OP. My advice?

Start over.

[AetherShift]

Well, to put it simply it is way overpowered. Not only is Stack the Odds simply better Portent it is Lucky+. No single, non-scaling feature is better in every way than a good feat, especially one at level 2. Then you have an additional passive control on anything you cast with a save that will always do something bad unless of course it is immune or irrelevant. Again Fate Bender is better than the Divination school's capstone. Then your capstone makes your luck too reliable while giving at flat disadvantage against anyone attacking you. While they are simple to understand this is all way too mechanical and stacks up way too much to be in a single subclass on a Wizard of all classes.

All very good observations. Thank you. Since there are no "luck" spells, I wanted to come up with a set of abilities that might make a wizard feel like it specializes in manipulating luck and probability. A diviner can cast divination spells and a necromancer can cast necromancy spells but introducing a non-school specialization for wizards poses a unique challenge. Every ability I came up with just turned out to be a worse/needlessly complex version of a feat that anyone can take. The Lucky feat is great, but it doesn't represent a supernatural/arcane affinity for probability manipulation. Compare the Alert feat (which is available to anyone) to the powers of observation that the Diviner has. The Diviner doesn't need to receive anything that powerful, because the bulk of it's "divinationy" power comes from it's spells. What if a master of luck could burn spells to gain rerolls for himself and allies. Could that ability be balanced?

Thanks again for your input.

[Amnoriath]

All very good observations. Thank you. Since there are no "luck" spells, I wanted to come up with a set of abilities that might make a wizard feel like it specializes in manipulating luck and probability. A diviner can cast divination spells and a necromancer can cast necromancy spells but introducing a non-school specialization for wizards poses a unique challenge. Every ability I came up with just turned out to be a worse/needlessly complex version of a feat that anyone can take. The Lucky feat is great, but it doesn't represent a supernatural/arcane affinity for probability manipulation. Compare the Alert feat (which is available to anyone) to the powers of observation that the Diviner has. The Diviner doesn't need to receive anything that powerful, because the bulk of it's "divinationy" power comes from it's spells. What if a master of luck could burn spells to gain rerolls for himself and allies. Could that ability be balanced?

Thanks again for your input.
1. Well there are many spells that give advantage or disadvantage. There are also spells that add to checks, attacks, or saves too. Yes, you normally don't have access to them but you could consult them in looking at what to do and what may be appropriate. You could also just add them to your prepared spells and cantrips.
2. While that may be the case the Diviner tried to touch on all what Divination does to give it a well-rounded feel without giving it everything. The problem with what you are doing though is that because it is so mechanically based using d20's as the luck basis you are making it good in everything. Additionally Lace with Misfortune only happens with spells making it only offensive when something similar could be remade into something more utility based or role-play to add more intrigue than power.

[AetherShift]

How would you compare the halfling's Lucky racial trait to the 2nd level wizard school features?

[Levism84]

Just throwing this out there, but now that you mention halfling and their racial feature, why not build the tychomancer (luck mage) as a wizard archetype restricted to halflings only. Don't make the features build on the halfling feature or modify it, but instead make the features of the class compliment the halfling racial stuff so if a DM or player was like "I want Grognor the dragonborn to be raised by halflings and be based on the gold dragon and fluff fluff fluff" they could still use the tychomancer for non-halfling characters.

Just an idea.

For example, you could give this archetype an expanded critical range for spells that require attack rolls (since those can crit as well, and champion fighters are the only other class that gets something like that). Add in some halfling flavored stuff like being able to have just the right item you need at the right time and gain bonuses on mental ability checks because halflings make their own luck. Finally, give them an ability that will allow them to pull their butts out of a fire. That way, you get something like this... sorta:

2nd level: Improved Critical (as fighter but with spell attacks instead of weapon attacks, 3rd level feature)

2nd level: Well-Prepared (a Pathfinder feat for halflings that would work well here, allows once per long rest to use your action to gain a mundane item, would need some work)

6th level: Some-sort-of-lucky-sounding-name-thing-here (Starting at 6th level, you can add half your proficiency bonus [rounded up] to any Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma check you make that doesn't already use your proficiency bonus.)

10th level: From Ruins to Riches (once per short rest/long rest turn disadvantage into advantage for a single attack roll, ability check, or saving throw)

14th level: Superior Critical (as fighter but with spell attacks instead of weapon attacks, 15th level feature)

[Amnoriath]

How would you compare the halfling's Lucky racial trait to the 2nd level wizard school features?
Well, the two are quite different but you current version is generally better than the Halfling's Lucky trait. First off the trait itself can only be used on about 5% of the rolls and they only pertain to your rolls. This feature though not only can screw up other's attack roll but it also helps your allies. In the beginning it may be possible you roll ones more than the feat gives but you would have to be quite unlucky.

[AetherShift]

Well, the two are quite different but you current version is generally better than the Halfling's Lucky trait. First off the trait itself can only be used on about 5% of the rolls and they only pertain to your rolls. This feature though not only can screw up other's attack roll but it also helps your allies. In the beginning it may be possible you roll ones more than the feat gives but you would have to be quite unlucky.

I meant that more as an alternative to my previous suggestion. I realize now my first idea was to powerful. In other words, would an ability similar to the halfling's lucky trait make for a more appropriate 2nd level ability, in terms of power level?

Something like:
"When you roll a number that is less than (half?) your proficiency bonus on an ability check, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll."

[Amnoriath]

I meant that more as an alternative to my previous suggestion. I realize now my first idea was to powerful. In other words, would an ability similar to the halfling's lucky trait make for a more appropriate 2nd level ability, in terms of power level?

Something like:
"When you roll a number that is less than (half?) your proficiency bonus on an ability check, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll."

It is a decent start but I would make it a little more clear. As of now it seems like you are talking about the result so maybe something like this.
"When you would roll a 1 or 2 on an ability check you can reroll the die before you know the result. You must take the result of the second roll." It is also better in terms of chance but only applies to one kind of roll as well as makes sure that a halfling wizard still has a reason to take it.

[AetherShift]

I've decided to nix this version and start again from scratch. You guys have given me some good stuff to think about, and I hope my next attempt is more balanced. Thanks for all the input, everyone. I'm sure some of your suggestions will come through in the new version.