Arcane Tradition of Astromancy

[AlhazTheRed]

There's definitely a fair amount of setting-specific flavour here, and I won't be expanding on that until the full Players Guide to Aard is ready, sorry. Any recommendations about balance or phrasing are deeply appreciated. Cheers!

Astromancy

The night skies hold many secrets - and dangers - and Astromancers seek to understand these. A marriage of the arcane studies of Divination and Conjuration, Astromancy is the art of reading the portents of the stars and spheres, and of harnessing their power. They know much of the Demons, Angels, and Dragons which inhabit the Sun’s other worlds. When a meteor comes, it is they who know first of its coming.

Stargazer Starting at 2nd level when you choose this school, your years of watching the night’s sky have given you keen eyes and a perfect memory of the position of the stars. You gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. Additionally, whenever you can see the nights sky your group can’t become lost except by magical means, and you always know the number of hours left before the next sunrise or sunset.

What Comes From Beyond Beginning at 2nd level you add your proficiency to any Intelligence checks pertaining to knowledge about creatures not native to Aard. If you would already add your proficiency bonus it is instead doubled.

Spells of Starlight At 6th you add the spells Augury, Daylight, and Faerie Fire to your spellbook. These spells are considered Wizard spells when you cast them. Your divination focus for the Augury spell is the night sky.

Read the Stars At 10th level, you can cast the Divination spell as a ritual. Doing so does not expend any spell slots. Once you cast the spell, you cannot cast it again until you complete a long rest.

Meteoric Summon At 14th level, you can cast the Meteor Swarm as a ritual without expending any spell slots.

[demonslayerelf]

It's definitely neat. I feel like it gets worse over time, though.

The two 2nd level features are really cool, really thematic. Minor things, but nice. Thematic.

But the other features are... Pretty terrible. (Although the subclass features at any given level range from ridiculously powerful to utterly useless, before even considering ribbon abilities. )

Augury, Faerie Fire, and Daylight in your spellbook is fine, but incredibly minor. For a wizard, they're almost ribbon abilities.

Once/day Divination is in the same boat, but even more minor. Divination is a pretty weak spell, honestly. "Hey, Gods, if nothing magical happens in a world full of magic, and none of my allies die, what might happen with X?" Having one of those each day be the only thing you get at 10th level seems more like a scam than a class feature.

Ritual Meteor Swarm is f*cking crazy. Especially at 14th level. Sit on top of a hill, and you can rain infinite death for a 1-mile radius. Or, fly half a mile above a major city, and then absolutely destroy the whole thing, 10 minutes at a time. There is NOTHING that can stop you from that far away, but Meteor Swarm is a 9th level spell, and moderately disgusting even by that standard. There's nothing to stop your 14th level wizard, so he'll destroy the city over the course of a handful of hours, maybe a day or two if the city is particularly large.


And just on a flavour aspect, those abilities are really underwhelming. Yes, they're vaguely space-ish... But just on a flavour aspect, it's just a waste.
Honestly, the whole "You're a wizard, so here's some more spells!" is pretty awful. I don't know why people do it. Like, is it really that hard to think of new abilities?
(That's a rhetorical because I write up stuff all the time, so I know it's not impossible)

If this were me designing this class, I would take one of 3 different paths.
1st on the list is an Alchemist(See the UA Artificer)-style of "Choose different abilities which scale with your wizard level." In my mind, I would probably base it on planets or constellations or something. I can see an ability that's something like... "Mars' Teachings: You may expend a spell slot to deal an additional x+1d8 force damage with a melee weapon attack, where X is the level of spell slot. You may expend a spell slot of a level that is equal to or less than the proficiency modifier associated with your wizard level."

2nd on the ideas list is a subclass that really heavily focuses on Aberrations. I can see a ability that's something like... "Whenever you cast a wizard spell of 1st level or higher which conjures a creature, you may replace the type of creature with Aberration, otherwise following the specifications of the spell."

And the 3rd train of thought I might follow with a space-based wizard subclass would be specifically on the symbolism associated with stars. Stars can symbolize goals, wishes, dreams, hope, clarity; A ton of stuff. Personally, that translates to me as being something of a bard-subclass, with some sort of inspiration.
I can see an ability like... "Star Struck: When you target a creature with a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you may choose to coat them in star dust. Until the end of your next turn, all attack rolls against that creature gain a bonus equal to the level of spell you hit them with."

[AlhazTheRed]

The two 2nd level features are really cool, really thematic. Minor things, but nice. Thematic.

Perhaps worth noting that no player races in this world have darkvision, bumping that one above minor imo


Augury, Faerie Fire, and Daylight in your spellbook is fine, but incredibly minor. For a wizard, they're almost ribbon abilities.

I'm okay with it being minor for the flavour, ribbon or no. Also, for my money Faeire Fire is one of the best 1st level spells in the game this edition.


Once/day Divination is in the same boat, but even more minor. Divination is a pretty weak spell, honestly. "Hey, Gods, if nothing magical happens in a world full of magic, and none of my allies die, what might happen with X?" Having one of those each day be the only thing you get at 10th level seems more like a scam than a class feature.

Fair point about it being a bum spell. I'll be replacing this one, and not with another spell I promise.


Ritual Meteor Swarm is f*cking crazy. Especially at 14th level. Sit on top of a hill, and you can rain infinite death for a 1-mile radius. Or, fly half a mile above a major city, and then absolutely destroy the whole thing, 10 minutes at a time. There is NOTHING that can stop you from that far away, but Meteor Swarm is a 9th level spell, and moderately disgusting even by that standard. There's nothing to stop your 14th level wizard, so he'll destroy the city over the course of a handful of hours, maybe a day or two if the city is particularly large.

How would you feel about it being once per long rest as a balance fix? I feel like ritual casting for a damage spell is fairly limiting vis a vis combat usefulness.

[demonslayerelf]

(I'm just gonna run through these point by point, sorry if you get confused.)

Darkvision's fine, but even if nothing gets it automatically, it's still just darkvision. It can be pretty awesome, but not so much for a wizard. For a rogue, sure, but it's still a minor thing for a wizard, when there are several light and/or fire producing cantrips. Not important.

Certainly, certainly. But there are literally tonnes of ways of getting a spell added to the list. If the ONLY thing you get at 6th level is a few spells added to your list... I'd feel cheated, and then some.

Glad you see the... *Looks at the camera* STAR-light! *Most retarded whale laugh*

I mean, how I feel about it is utterly meaningless, since you'll be making it for yourself and others who aren't me.
But since you're asking; Still too much. This is a 9th level spell; A REALLY GOOD ONE at that. You might not be able to rain death forever, but at 14th level, a 9th level spell period is a bit much. Never mind that it's free relative to your other features. The fact that it's a 10 minute casting time doesn't help much.