Spiriah
2016-06-13, 08:59 AM
I've always really liked White Mages in the Final Fantasy series, and while the Life Cleric is similar to the White Mage in role, they're thematically very different – Life Clerics have heavy armor, and Blessed Healer and Divine Strike encourage them to get into the thick of things and take some damage, as their healing spells give them some HP back. I saw the White Mage as being more of a back-line healer/controller, avoiding damage and supporting the party through their spells. Besides their use of Int as a casting stat (Wis would've been more thematic), I saw Wizard as the best chassis for such a subclass.
Thus, I give you the White Mage (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HyuWzBPN).
I have some thoughts about its balance, and would like to hear your input:
Restoration Savant is pretty standard, though possibly a bit limited in scope? Only 12 spells, or 16 if you count death as a condition.
White Magic's changing the spell list is a clunky solution, and one I'm not wholly satisfied with, but I don't know how else to get healing into Wizard without it being too good. The Blessed Healer part brings it on par with Life Cleric in terms of healing power.
I think Regen is balanced out by only healing if you're above zero. If it brought someone back up every round, it'd be busted, but as is, it just keeps people's HP topped up. It's a very strong out-of-combat heal, as well, so that's a potential concern.
I'm somewhat proud of Divine Seal. I really like the way it's set up, and I don't think a crit heal once per short rest unbalances anything.
Reckoning serves as a capstone of sorts, improving the somewhat low damage on a lot of WHM spells, as well as buffing their healing. It's broader in scope than Life Cleric's capstone, but far less reliable.
The spell list was an attempt to find a middleground between the utility-master D&D wizards and the healing, nature-channeling White Mages. I might cut some of the stronger utility spells (e.g. Fly or Counterspell), but I think the loss of most damage spells, minionmancy (aside from elementals, but I might drop that as well), and a few other powerful spells (e.g. Polymorph, most Enchantments, Telekinesis) balances those out.
I might include a note about DMs being free to disallow Healing Word, Cure Wounds, and Bless as Spell Mastery picks. Resource-free healing is basically absent from 5e, and Bless is a very powerful spell for first level, but it does come in at 18th level. I don't see it as an immense balance issue, but I think I'll leave it up to the DM.
So, thoughts? Have I created some horribly broken healing abomination? Does anyone have a better fix for the spell list substitution? Should I try to convert some other FFXIV jobs? All feedback is welcome!
Thus, I give you the White Mage (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HyuWzBPN).
I have some thoughts about its balance, and would like to hear your input:
Restoration Savant is pretty standard, though possibly a bit limited in scope? Only 12 spells, or 16 if you count death as a condition.
White Magic's changing the spell list is a clunky solution, and one I'm not wholly satisfied with, but I don't know how else to get healing into Wizard without it being too good. The Blessed Healer part brings it on par with Life Cleric in terms of healing power.
I think Regen is balanced out by only healing if you're above zero. If it brought someone back up every round, it'd be busted, but as is, it just keeps people's HP topped up. It's a very strong out-of-combat heal, as well, so that's a potential concern.
I'm somewhat proud of Divine Seal. I really like the way it's set up, and I don't think a crit heal once per short rest unbalances anything.
Reckoning serves as a capstone of sorts, improving the somewhat low damage on a lot of WHM spells, as well as buffing their healing. It's broader in scope than Life Cleric's capstone, but far less reliable.
The spell list was an attempt to find a middleground between the utility-master D&D wizards and the healing, nature-channeling White Mages. I might cut some of the stronger utility spells (e.g. Fly or Counterspell), but I think the loss of most damage spells, minionmancy (aside from elementals, but I might drop that as well), and a few other powerful spells (e.g. Polymorph, most Enchantments, Telekinesis) balances those out.
I might include a note about DMs being free to disallow Healing Word, Cure Wounds, and Bless as Spell Mastery picks. Resource-free healing is basically absent from 5e, and Bless is a very powerful spell for first level, but it does come in at 18th level. I don't see it as an immense balance issue, but I think I'll leave it up to the DM.
So, thoughts? Have I created some horribly broken healing abomination? Does anyone have a better fix for the spell list substitution? Should I try to convert some other FFXIV jobs? All feedback is welcome!