Wizard subclass - The Occultist

[zombiecurse]

Thought the wizards needed an arcane tradition with a bit of Lovecraftian flavour.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HJQ2WHOyGM

Would specifically be interested to hear feedback about the greater and lesser heresies and whether they're too much, not enough, whether some of them should be switched from greater to lesser, etc. I tried to keep it balanced but would love to hear how people would use it to break the game so I can fix it.

Also wanted to create an arcane tradition that would could use the demon summoning spells relatively safely and that actually had a reason to cast planar binding. The bonus for Deep Speech in Forbidden Tongues might be a bit weak compared to the other options.

[Avigor]

Expanded Spell List: Not sure how good an idea it is to make these automatically known, compared to just allowing more choices. Foresight is already on the Wizard spell list, so that's nothing new... Also, you're using spell levels, when normally other archetypes that grant bonus spell access will go by character level going up to 5th level spells, with the Arcane Domain and Bard giving limited higher level choices, the Favored Soul being the only exception to this (where you can choose your spells from Sorcerer or Cleric lists freely).
All in all, this feels like a smidge much; maybe on every odd level you can just choose one spell known from any spell list, and you can add ritual spells from other lists to your spellbook and cast them as rituals only (unless you take said spell as one of your more flexible spells known)?

Lesser Heresies: First, the wording should be clarified to make sure it's clearly understood that you mean you can use any combination of the Lesser Heresy abilities two times before you must take a long rest to use the ability again; current wording suggests you can only use one of the two memorized abilities if one is too RAW nitpicky.
Otherwise, Tenfold Blasphemy just feels like it's ripping off Heighten Spell and needs to find it's own identity. Maybe something more eldritch themed instead? The others are fiendish and necromancy themed respectively... And speaking of Undying King's Whispers, part of me wants to suggest nerfing or changing it but I'm not sure of the best way, especially to maintain a unique flavor while still being potent...

Forbidden Tongues: Deep Speech needs to specify that the d8 instead of d6 is referring to the "on a failed save" effect, not the damage. Also, if this is supposed to enhance your mind, I'd say give telepathy or some sort of mental resistance... of course to do so you'd have to grant another, non-spell ability to the others as well. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure something out for them... Resist to some specific damage type or another, perhaps, or advantage on social checks with the appropriate creatures or something...

Greater Heresies: Power word pain vs impenetrable concentration for any spell or a free slot upgrade? Um, I think The Undoer's Malediction needs a rework to something more unique and potent. Also, I'd suggest a nerf for the Ebon Trance, such as allow you to ignore the first concentration failure, or limit it to specific spells, or something similar instead of giving unbreakable concentration to any spell; even the Conjuration ability is limited to only Conjuration spells.

[zombiecurse]

Expanded Spell List: Not sure how good an idea it is to make these automatically known, compared to just allowing more choices. Foresight is already on the Wizard spell list, so that's nothing new... Also, you're using spell levels, when normally other archetypes that grant bonus spell access will go by character level going up to 5th level spells, with the Arcane Domain and Bard giving limited higher level choices, the Favored Soul being the only exception to this (where you can choose your spells from Sorcerer or Cleric lists freely).
All in all, this feels like a smidge much; maybe on every odd level you can just choose one spell known from any spell list, and you can add ritual spells from other lists to your spellbook and cast them as rituals only (unless you take said spell as one of your more flexible spells known)?

Yeah, I've reworked the spell list and made it so they're not automatically known.


Lesser Heresies: First, the wording should be clarified to make sure it's clearly understood that you mean you can use any combination of the Lesser Heresy abilities two times before you must take a long rest to use the ability again; current wording suggests you can only use one of the two memorized abilities if one is too RAW nitpicky.
Otherwise, Tenfold Blasphemy just feels like it's ripping off Heighten Spell and needs to find it's own identity. Maybe something more eldritch themed instead? The others are fiendish and necromancy themed respectively... And speaking of Undying King's Whispers, part of me wants to suggest nerfing or changing it but I'm not sure of the best way, especially to maintain a unique flavor while still being potent...

I'm reworking this quite a bit and just putting how often you can use each heresy straight into each of their descriptions. I've changed Tenfold Blasphemy to just give you the ability to impose disadvantage once per short rest, which I'm comfortable with. Had never played a Sorceror before so I wasn't aware that was what Heightened Spell did, but I'm not too concerned about it ripping it off. I've also gotten rid of Undying King's Whispers and moved Elder Tongue to lesser blasphemies, reworked it a bit and made it usable once per short rest.


Forbidden Tongues: Deep Speech needs to specify that the d8 instead of d6 is referring to the "on a failed save" effect, not the damage. Also, if this is supposed to enhance your mind, I'd say give telepathy or some sort of mental resistance... of course to do so you'd have to grant another, non-spell ability to the others as well. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure something out for them... Resist to some specific damage type or another, perhaps, or advantage on social checks with the appropriate creatures or something...

Good catch on the 1d8 for Deep Speech, I'll fix that. I'm not going to be adding anymore abilities to these options though. It already felt too strong, so I reduced the number of languages you could specialize in from two to one.


Greater Heresies: Power word pain vs impenetrable concentration for any spell or a free slot upgrade? Um, I think The Undoer's Malediction needs a rework to something more unique and potent. Also, I'd suggest a nerf for the Ebon Trance, such as allow you to ignore the first concentration failure, or limit it to specific spells, or something similar instead of giving unbreakable concentration to any spell; even the Conjuration ability is limited to only Conjuration spells.

I actually think a free 7th level spell is pretty damn strong, especially one that basically cripples the target. And I think Ebon Trance is in a pretty good spot, considering you can only use it once per day, whereas the Conjuration ability lets you summon as much as you want without ever breaking concentration. Maybe it didn't come across that you can only use it once? As with the lesser heresies, I'm putting the number of times you can use each greater heresy into each individual description. As I said above, I moved Elder Tongue down to the Lesser Blasphemies and reworked it a bit. And I put a "Bestow Curse" option in the greater heresies as a bit of a placeholder. Not sure what I'm going to do with that one yet.

Updated version here. Still very much a WIP: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BJR7Sd7fG

[Avigor]

First, that was the EDIT link you posted there. Whoops.

No 2nd or 4th level spells? Also, for some reason I really think Antilife Shell would fit this...

[zombiecurse]

First, that was the EDIT link you posted there. Whoops.

No 2nd or 4th level spells? Also, for some reason I really think Antilife Shell would fit this...

Whoops indeed. Fixed the link.

Yeah, just going to go the cleric route and give him additional 1st, 3rd and 5th level spells. Kinda like the theurge wizard from the unearthed arcana.

I think I'm good with the current spell list. TBH, I've never really liked Antilife Shell. I know it's useful, I just think the idea behind it is kinda janky.

[Avigor]

Whoops indeed. Fixed the link.

Yeah, just going to go the cleric route and give him additional 1st, 3rd and 5th level spells. Kinda like the theurge wizard from the unearthed arcana.

I think I'm good with the current spell list. TBH, I've never really liked Antilife Shell. I know it's useful, I just think the idea behind it is kinda janky.

Perhaps, but my brain thinks it fits the flavor somehow. Anyhoot, let me know if you do any more modifications to the Heresies.

[zombiecurse]

Perhaps, but my brain thinks it fits the flavor somehow. Anyhoot, let me know if you do any more modifications to the Heresies.

This is where I'm currently at it with it. Still a WIP, so things may change over time: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/H1OvPN4Gz

[zombiecurse]

Made a number of changes to this. Wondering what people think: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HJ-Xa_wKMz

Specifically looking for feedback about the number of times you can use a Heresy. Once per short rest seemed like too little but twice seemed like too much, so I'm trying to have it max out at about three uses per day.