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View Full Version : Rate my wizard, fighter and thief (Tier system)



Flik9999
2016-08-22, 08:53 AM
Hey so i have a homebrew D20 system and would like someone to tell me how much I have managed to level the playing field between casters and martial. In this system all spellcasters are spontaneous but I have reduced the ammout of spells they can cast and the level they gain thier spells.

Combat spells have all been rammed into first level and allow the spellcasters to do thier damage without needing high level spells (Which is less than martial)

Spell range also very rarely goes beyond 60 ft so they have to get within charge range to even cast thier spells.

There are no class skills so players can pick any skills

Wizard

HP: Low
AC: Low

Spells known: Starts with 4, learns 1 new spell per level (This assumes the wizard is learning the highest level spell they can)

Level 1: 0: Any, 1: 4
Level 5: 0: Any, 1: 6, 2:2 3:1
Level 10: 0: Any: 1:6, 2:4, 3:3 4:1
Level 15: 0: Any ,1:6, 2:4, 3:4, 4:4 5:1
Level 20: 0: Any ,1:6, 2:4, 3:4, 4:4 5:5 6:1

Wizard skills: 4 skill at first level gain another skill every odd level
Wizard expertise: wizards roll 2D20 with knowledge (Arcana) and use magic device


Fighter:
HP: High
AC: high

Fighter skills: 6 at first level two skills every 3 levels (4,7 etc)

Fighter expertise: roll 2D20 with ride and climb, at levels 7, 11, 15 and 19 the fighter picks another skill and rolls 2D20 with that skill.

Thief:
HP: Low
AC: Medium

Thief skills: 8 at first level, gain a skill every level

Thief expertise: roll 2D20 with sleight of hand and stealth, at levels 7, 11, 15 and 19 the thief picks another skill and rolls 2D20 with that skill.


SPELLLIST

The spells are mostly from pathfinder, however spells that are combat based (Hold person, sleep etc) have been removed. Wizards fight by casting a multitarget magic missile which deals a small ammount of damage to each target.

The non combat spells are from AD&D with a few pathfinder spells, theres a lot of gimmicks, instead of save or die spells you get magic jar which takes skill to use for example.

Sooth
2016-08-22, 11:44 PM
It seems to me that what you're going for, is for all 3 classes to have a unique role and purpose, so that the Tier system doesn't really apply anymore because all of the classes do something that the other two really cannot do. The Wizard is bad at direct combat now (though their magic missiles make them reliable -- it's not clear to me how often they get to use magic missiles or how powerful it is, but I assume it's weaker than a Fighter's attacks) so you basically need a Fighter in your party if you want to... well... fight and win battles. Sounds about right.

This model makes me think of a Pathfinder core class called the Hellenic Sorceress. Basically they're the sort of mage you would see in Greek mythology and other old stories: a witch/utility mage who does things like rituals and mystical effects but they don't go around blowing up canyons like Warcraft mages. They're also decisively weaker than ordinary mages, which is entirely the point.

Anyway I could dig this. So Wizards are encouraged to use those oldschool spells like Phantasmal Force or w/e it's called and do things that don't directly kill anyone but can still influence events when used cleverly? Sounds cool.

It does seem like the Thief is in danger of being made obsolete because the Fighter can grab all the rogue-like skills, and all the Thief has on the Fighter is that they have a few more skills and are specialized in different skills: meanwhile the Fighter gets to be awesome at nearly as many skills while also fighting much, much better. In AD&D sure the Thief sucked at fighting but they made up for it by being the only basic class that could do what they did. So for your homebrew I would think that either the Thief needs to be respectable at fighting or they need abilities that are actually unique and can't be almost-replicated by the Fighter.