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BTGbullseye
2018-07-26, 10:46 AM
https: // docs . google . com/document/d/1ics0kxFEH_tcD3NbGAxS9_cmHeU3JbtAWD7J8tHeRv8/edit?usp=sharing (I don't have the post count to post the link, it's a Google Doc with what I have so far)

I spent about 4 months working on this with my previous DM, but life interfered with D&D so I'm on my own with this. I need help getting this balanced so that it isn't quite so overpowered. (at least my DM thought it was a bit overpowered anyways)

Bear in mind that I want to keep to the spirit of this design, where it is focussing on a single enemy and buffing a large number of stats against just it, but only if you spend a lot of time doing so. (meaning the main ability is useless if ambushed or if you switch targets in-combat)

Please, share your wisdom.


Tradition requirement: Must have at least 16 in both INT and WIS, and proficiency in Investigation or Insight.

Arcane Investigation

At 2nd level, you can closely observe creatures to discover their weaknesses. For every minute spent studying a creature, you discover one random saving throw proficiency it has. If you spend at least ten minutes studying the same creature, or if you discover all its proficiencies, that individual creature becomes your Arcane Adversary. You can have up to three Arcane Adversaries, and the effect dissipates after 1 week if no further study is done. It takes half the normal time to study a creature that was previously an Arcane Adversary.

You have +2 to spell attack rolls, +2 to spell DC, and +1 to spell damage rolls against your Arcane Adversary. If your Adversary is not currently in combat with you, you also gain proficiency in Performance, Persuasion, and Insight against it. (does not stack with existing proficiencies)


Inadequate Defenses

At 6th level, you are able to bypass your Arcane Adversary’s defenses. You ignore all magical resistances your Adversary has, and immunities are treated as resistances. (effect does not stack with Elemental Adept feats)

If your Adversary is not currently in combat with you, you also gain proficiency in Intimidation and Deception against it. (does not stack with existing proficiencies) If all three of your Arcane Adversaries are in the same group, your Adversary bonuses apply to the entire group.

You can now also study non-creature objects. If you spend at least 3 minutes doing so, you gain advantage on all rolls concerning that object for the next week. You can have this advantage on up to 5 objects at once.


Elemental Shaping (replaces 8th level Wizard ability increase/feat)

At 8th level, you are unusually adept at shaping elemental energies. As a Bonus Action, you can expend one spell slot of any level to augment all of your damage dealing spells and weapons by adding 1d4 per slot level of your choice of elemental damage (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder) to them. This effect lasts for 1 minute, and can be used once for every 4 spellcaster levels per short rest, rounded up. You can not change the type of damage after it has been cast, and it can not be recast until the previous casting has ended.


Overwhelming Power

At 10th level, you can add an additional spell slot to your casting of a spell to effectively cast the spell with a higher level slot, this consumes both spell slots. This ability can be used once per short rest for an up to 6th level slot, and once per long rest for a 7-9th level slot. This does not allow for casting a 6th level spell using a pair of 3rd level slots, and can not produce a spell slot effect greater than 9th level. EXAMPLE: Casting a Magic Missile with a 3rd level slot, can be augmented with another 3rd level slot to have the same effect as casting with a single 6th level slot. This uses both spell slots. You would then be able to use a 4th level and 5th level slot to cast Magic Missile again at 9th level, using both slots, which would require a long rest to be able to do again.


Unyielding Focus

At 14th level, while you are concentrating on a spell, you have advantage on all checks to maintain concentration, and non-magical damage does not trigger a check at all. In addition, your Arcane Adversary is incapable of ever directly disrupting your concentration.

You are now also able to forgo your choice of either the Verbal or Somatic component of your spells. This has no cost if the spell is level 2 or lower, including cantrips. For spells level 3-5, it costs a level 1 or higher spell slot. For spells level 6 and higher, it costs a level 2 or higher spell slot.

Composer99
2018-07-26, 09:20 PM
I spent about 4 months working on this with my previous DM, but life interfered with D&D so I'm on my own with this. I need help getting this balanced so that it isn't quite so overpowered. (at least my DM thought it was a bit overpowered anyways)

Bear in mind that I want to keep to the spirit of this design, where it is focussing on a single enemy and buffing a large number of stats against just it, but only if you spend a lot of time doing so. (meaning the main ability is useless if ambushed or if you switch targets in-combat)

Please, share your wisdom.

Well, I don't know about wisdom, at least speaking for myself. But I'll do my best.

Overall, it seems to me that the features that make this arcane tradition distinct and unique are underwhelming, while the ones that don't really seem thematic are quite overpowered. Let me go through feature by feature. The "core" features - at 2nd, 6th, and 14th level - also have a lot of different moving parts, which makes them bloated and lacking in focus.

What's more, by tying the features to specific adversaries, it really does not fit the theme of an "arcane inspector" - more like a wizard who wants to have a favoured enemy, wizard-style.

As a nitpick, since it comes up a lot, features that recharge on a rest either recharge when you finish a long rest, or when you finish a short or long rest. If you only write "short rest", and players read your text literally, they don't get the feature back when they finish a long rest.

My overall suggestions:
- Change the name to better fit the design theme you have stated.
- Tone down the core thematic features at 2nd and 6th level but make them more easily applicable. You'll see what I mean when I get to the individual features.
- The 8th level feature has to go.
- Go back to the drawing board for the feature at 10th level.
- The 14th level feature is okay...ish.



Arcane Inspector
Tradition requirement: Must have at least 16 in both INT and WIS, and proficiency in Investigation or Insight.

I'm really not a fan of prerequisites for any archetype or subclass. If anything, this arcane tradition should be giving proficiency in Investigation. Most arcane traditions give a ribbon (e.g. the school-based ones give <school of magic> savant) at 2nd level as well as the main feature, so you could easily do so as well.



Arcane Investigation

At 2nd level, you can closely observe creatures to discover their weaknesses. For every minute spent studying a creature, you discover one random saving throw proficiency it has. If you spend at least ten minutes studying the same creature, or if you discover all its proficiencies, that individual creature becomes your Arcane Adversary. You can have up to three Arcane Adversaries, and the effect dissipates after 1 week if no further study is done. It takes half the normal time to study a creature that was previously an Arcane Adversary.

You have +2 to spell attack rolls, +2 to spell DC, and +1 to spell damage rolls against your Arcane Adversary. If your Adversary is not currently in combat with you, you also gain proficiency in Performance, Persuasion, and Insight against it. (does not stack with existing proficiencies)

First of all, the mechanics and the theme of the name don't fit together very well.


Second, this feature is, I'm sorry to say, pretty subpar. If you can get the chance to observe an enemy for enough time, the benefits are powerful, but since most creatures that PC parties get into fights with have their remaining life spans reduced to 18-30 seconds (3-5 rounds, or the duration of a typical combat)... well.


It might be good in niche situations, such as against the campaign BBEG, or in combat-light, social-heavy campaigns, or if you can use it whilst scrying on a creature. But otherwise, it's extremely unreliable. I guess maybe if you play Curse of Strahd and get to turn Strahd into your arcane adversary? But most foes will die before you even finish figuring out their first saving throw proficiency. No thanks to you, 'cause you've spent that minute studying them instead of helping your teammates finish them off.


The problem, though, is that the benefits you get for having an arcane adversary are sufficiently good that this feature would be ridiculous if you made it more usable.


Also, not a fan of the "now you have proficiency, now you don't" part of the feature. It would be better to give advantage, or let you use your Intelligence modifier when making ability checks with those skills. And why Performance? This comment applies to the Inadequate Defences feature sort-of-maybe-kind-of bonus proficiency clause as well.



Inadequate Defenses

At 6th level, you are able to bypass your Arcane Adversary’s defenses. You ignore all magical resistances your Adversary has, and immunities are treated as resistances. (effect does not stack with Elemental Adept feats)

If your Adversary is not currently in combat with you, you also gain proficiency in Intimidation and Deception against it. (does not stack with existing proficiencies) If all three of your Arcane Adversaries are in the same group, your Adversary bonuses apply to the entire group.

You can now also study non-creature objects. If you spend at least 3 minutes doing so, you gain advantage on all rolls concerning that object for the next week. You can have this advantage on up to 5 objects at once.

This suffers from the same problems as the 2nd-level feature. It's amazeballs to the point of being over-the-top ridiculous for a 6th-level feature - but only against a creature that you manage to make into your arcane adversary.

The comment about your adversaries being in a group is redundant.

The object clause is weird. What sort of in-game situations were you thinking of when you wrote it? It certainly doesn't fit the theme of "Inadequate Defenses". Just makes the feature even more chimeric, and not necessarily in a good way.

Okay, so before moving on, I'm going to stop and suggest that you need to take the skill proficiency clauses out of these features and create a new feature at 2nd level where you get some benefit on using those skills (advantage, using Intelligence instead of Charisma, something like that) against an arcane adversary.



Elemental Shaping (replaces 8th level Wizard ability increase/feat)

At 8th level, you are unusually adept at shaping elemental energies. As a Bonus Action, you can expend one spell slot of any level to augment all of your damage dealing spells and weapons by adding 1d4 per slot level of your choice of elemental damage (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder) to them. This effect lasts for 1 minute, and can be used once for every 4 spellcaster levels per short rest, rounded up. You can not change the type of damage after it has been cast, and it can not be recast until the previous casting has ended.

No. Just no.

First, this feature really doesn't fit the theme of "arcane inspector" (whether that's some detective-wizard or wannabe-ranger wizard) at all. Nothing about "I inspect things... with magic!" brings to mind an elemental smite-style feature.

Second, mucking around with the normal class progression just doesn't sit right with me.

Third, this feature is overpowered.

A paladin spends a spell slot to smite on one attack and deals between 2d8 and 5d8 radiant damage over and above the attack's normal damage. On average, that's between 9 and 22.5 extra damage. You can use it on each attack in a round if you hit with all of them, but you'll run out of spell slots pretty quickly.

The way I'm parsing "augment all your damage dealing spells and weapons" is that this feature lets you add Xd4 damage to every single one of your weapon or spell damage rolls for a whole freakin' minute, where X is the level of the expended spell slot. When you get this feature, you can use it twice in between rests as well, or six to eight times in an adventuring day assuming two or three short rests (which is what the DMG recommends).

Even a 1st-level spell slot becomes amazing if you happen to drop an AoE spell. It becomes as good as a paladin burning a 1st-level slot to smite after you make 4 damage rolls (average 2.5 damage per roll). If you both burn a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th-level slot, it takes you 3 rolls to do better than the paladin.



Overwhelming Power

At 10th level, you can add an additional spell slot to your casting of a spell to effectively cast the spell with a higher level slot, this consumes both spell slots. This ability can be used once per short rest for an up to 6th level slot, and once per long rest for a 7-9th level slot. This does not allow for casting a 6th level spell using a pair of 3rd level slots, and can not produce a spell slot effect greater than 9th level. EXAMPLE: Casting a Magic Missile with a 3rd level slot, can be augmented with another 3rd level slot to have the same effect as casting with a single 6th level slot. This uses both spell slots. You would then be able to use a 4th level and 5th level slot to cast Magic Missile again at 9th level, using both slots, which would require a long rest to be able to do again.

Sorcerers and warlocks are the classes that traditionally manipulate spell slots in weird ways (sorcerers by converting them to sorcery points or vice-versa, and warlocks by getting short-rest slots), and those features cap at 5th level slots. One of the central design elements of Vancian casting in 5e is that your limit of spell slots for 6th through 9th level is a hard limit. This feature lets you get around that limit. Granted, it requires that you spend two slots and can only use it to upcast a spell (and unless you're multiclassed, you would rarely want to use a slot level that high for upcasting), but still.

It also really doesn't fit the theme of the arcane tradition, either.



Unyielding Focus

At 14th level, while you are concentrating on a spell, you have advantage on all checks to maintain concentration, and non-magical damage does not trigger a check at all. In addition, your Arcane Adversary is incapable of ever directly disrupting your concentration.

You are now also able to forgo your choice of either the Verbal or Somatic component of your spells. This has no cost if the spell is level 2 or lower, including cantrips. For spells level 3-5, it costs a level 1 or higher spell slot. For spells level 6 and higher, it costs a level 2 or higher spell slot.

The first paragraph of this feature is decent, although it's stepping on the toes of the War Caster feat so hard it's crushing them.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. (I've made a series of combat abilities that replicate much of the functionality of some combat feats, for instance.) But I think it's more suitable in a campaign where you're either not using feats or where you're making other modifications to the system.

I can also sort of imagine a detective or tracker wizard resorting to an unyielding focus when on the job, so it fits the theme, I guess.

The second paragraph is, in addition to being awful for any spells above 2nd level, and an unhappy intrusion of 3e/3.5/PF-style metamagic mechanics, is an illustration of my point on bloated features. If you want to keep it, I'd suggest changing it so that you don't have to spend a higher-level slot. Instead, either you can use it a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum once), recovering expended uses when you finish a long rest, or you can use it once or twice, recovering expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

BTGbullseye
2018-07-28, 09:28 AM
Thanks for the reply.

First I would like to point out that yes, it is designed to be extremely overpowered feeling towards a single enemy, while being underpowered versus everything else. That is how I was trying to make it, that isn't a mistake.

Yes, it is more powerful for the non-combat sections of D&D, mainly because there is a severe lack of non-combat focus in most classes, and I wanted to give some for someone other than a Bard. Also, the few combat related traits/abilities are supposed to be slightly overpowered since there are fewer of them than you would normally get in a subclass. (fewer more powerful and more situational combat abilities is my goal)

As for the names of everything, they are placeholders... Every single one of those were something very different before this. Please don't focus on the name of the trait/ability instead of the trait/ability itself.

There is a reason to having the prerequisites for the tradition... It's designed to seem slightly overpowered in general, so as a small balancing aspect it forces you to focus on the direction the tradition requires, instead of any other. (why would a wizard that is supposed to be focussing on magic be putting points into charisma instead? I've seen it happen)

As for the 8th and 10th level abilities being "not something wizards do normally"... So what? There are plenty of other subclasses that throw in non-thematic traits/abilities, so why is that so bad for this one?

The overpowered 8th level one is something I need help making less overpowered, but you didn't make any suggestions to bring it in line besides "No, just no." This isn't helpful.

2nd level ability: You do realize that if the enemy only has 0-1 saving throw proficiency, that only takes 1 minute to apply the bonus? It's too slow for combat intentionally. Alternatively, maybe I could make it so that you could spend 1 spell slot to turn an enemy into an Adversary for the duration of combat... How does that sound? (makes it workable in a surprise combat situation, where it wasn't before)

Also, not all combat ends in "kill or be killed" in a good homebrew campaign... At least not IMO.

6th level ability: How is it redundant? If there is a group of 15 enemies, and your 3 Adversaries are in that group, you get the bonus to all 15 of them... It wasn't that way for the level 2 version. As for the object subpart... Say you've come across a trap you can't bypass, so you want to disable it. Just study it for a few minutes, and you get a bonus to being able to disarm it. Not that hard to see a use for it if you're not exclusively focussing on combat.

Interesting suggestion of switching it to INT instead of CHA... I like it. I'll be switching that up shortly.

8th level ability: What if the damage bonus was linked to the Adversary, not just a general damage bonus? Would be very powerful against bosses, (its intent) but not OP against the little guys. And yes, it is too powerful, maybe If it's dropped to using only one level 1 slot, and not escalating ever? Maybe switching it to applying a weakness to a type of elemental damage instead of a flat damage bonus?

Also, yes it's replacing the customization, that is intentional. Minor railroading as a balancing restriction.

10th level ability: How about I put a maximum slot level cap in there as well? Can't be used for higher than 4th level spells? I intentionally drew a little from the other classes for this one, because it always bothered me that the Wizards with all their knowledge and ability, couldn't put two slots together and get a better slot, but any idiot Sorcerer could. (I've played with min-max players that had INT of 6 or less on their Sorcerers, but somehow they were always able to do everything without trouble, how does that make sense?)

14th level "secondary" ability: I wanted to have it be usable more often and for a cost, rather than a no-cost limited number of uses. Basically, it would be hard to justify using it on higher level spells without being in an extremely tight situation, but you could use it any time for free for little things. Maybe change to free for cantrip to level 1, and 1 slot cost for everything higher? (remember, this allows for verbal requirement spells to work despite being silenced, or motion requirement spells despite being restrained)

If I missed something, please forgive me.

PS: What player or GM wouldn't count a long rest the same as a short rest for the purposes of regaining an ability that recharges after a short rest? It's the difference of resting for an hour or 8 hours, why would resting longer NOT recharge it at least as much as a shorter time?


Tradition requirement: Must have at least 16 in both INT and WIS, and proficiency in Investigation or Insight.

Arcane Investigation

At 2nd level, you can closely observe creatures to discover their weaknesses. For every minute spent studying a creature, you discover one random saving throw proficiency it has. If you spend at least ten minutes studying the same creature, or if you discover all its proficiencies, that individual creature becomes your Arcane Adversary. You can have up to three Arcane Adversaries, and the effect dissipates after 1 week if no further study is done. It takes half the normal time to study a creature that was previously an Arcane Adversary.

You have +2 to spell attack rolls, +2 to your spell DC, +1 to spell damage rolls, and -2 to your Arcane Adversary's spell DC against you. You can add your INT modifier to any skill check when used against your Arcane Adversary.

??? You can use one level 1 spell slot to make an enemy your Arcane Adversary for the duration of combat, but it will have no lasting effects after combat ends. ??? (possible alteration to make it combat-usable)


Inadequate Defenses

At 6th level, you are able to bypass your Arcane Adversary’s defenses. You ignore all magical resistances your Adversary has, and magical immunities are treated as resistances. (effect does not stack with Elemental Adept feats) You can add your WIS modifier to any skill check in addition to your INT modifier if used against your Arcane Adversary. If all three of your Arcane Adversaries are in the same group, your Adversary bonuses apply to the entire group.

You can now also study non-creature objects. If you spend at least 3 minutes doing so, you gain advantage on all rolls concerning that object for the next week. You can have this advantage on up to 5 objects at once.


Elemental Shaping (replaces 8th level Wizard ability increase/feat)

At 8th level, you are unusually adept at shaping elemental energies against your Arcane Adversaries. As a Bonus Action, you can expend one spell slot of any level to augment all of your damage dealing spells and weapons by adding 1d4 of your choice of elemental damage (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder) to them. This effect lasts for 1 minute, (10 combat rounds) and can be used once for every 4 spellcaster levels per short rest, rounded up. You can not change the type of damage after it has been cast, and it can not be recast until the previous casting has ended. This bonus damage only applies to your Arcane Adversary.

Alternative: Elemental Weakening (replaces 8th level Wizard ability increase/feat)

At 8th level, you can manipulate your Arcane Adversary’s life force enough to weaken them to the elements. You can spend one spell slot of your choice to give your Arcane Adversary a weakness (+50% damage) to your choice of elemental damage.(acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder) This effect lasts for 3 rounds and can be used once for every 2 spellcaster levels per short rest. You can not change the type of damage weakness after it has been cast, and it can not be recast until the previous casting has ended.

???Weakness bonus damage only applies to you, or lasts for 1 full round and applies for everyone dealing damage to the Adversary???


Overwhelming Power

At 10th level, you can add an additional spell slot to your casting of a spell to effectively cast the spell with a higher level slot, this consumes both spell slots. This ability can be used once per short rest, and can not be used with spells of level 5 or higher. This does not allow for casting a 6th level spell using a pair of 3rd level slots, and can not produce a spell slot effect greater than 9th level. EXAMPLE: Casting a Magic Missile with a 3rd level slot, can be augmented with another 3rd level slot to have the same effect as casting with a single 6th level slot. This uses both 3rd level spell slots.


Unyielding Focus

At 14th level, while you are concentrating on a spell, you have advantage on all checks to maintain concentration, and non-magical damage does not trigger a check at all. In addition, your Arcane Adversary is incapable of ever directly disrupting your concentration.

You are now also able to forgo your choice of either the Verbal or Somatic component of your spells. This has no cost if the spell is level 1 or a cantrip. For spells level 2 or higher, it costs 1 spell slot of your choice.

JNAProductions
2018-07-28, 03:02 PM
So, basically, pick one target, and say "Feth you, you're toast" at level 2? Admittedly, a 1st level slot is valuable at level 2, so maybe not then.

But at level, say, 9? You've got plenty of other slots. Increasing your DC by 2 is insane.

Overwhelming Power is also too good. Lower level slots stop being useful for anything besides defense (Blur, Shield, Mirror Image) or utility (Knock, a lot of illusions) at higher levels, but this lets you juice them up to make them combat capable.

Overall, I definitely agree with Composer that this is OP and not very thematic.

Composer99
2018-07-29, 09:12 PM
Thanks for the reply.

First I would like to point out that yes, it is designed to be extremely overpowered feeling towards a single enemy, while being underpowered versus everything else. That is how I was trying to make it, that isn't a mistake.

Yes, it is more powerful for the non-combat sections of D&D, mainly because there is a severe lack of non-combat focus in most classes, and I wanted to give some for someone other than a Bard. Also, the few combat related traits/abilities are supposed to be slightly overpowered since there are fewer of them than you would normally get in a subclass. (fewer more powerful and more situational combat abilities is my goal)

The issue isn't that the tradition is more powerful against a select few enemies, as such. In that sense, it has an "On" mode and an "Off" mode, much like the barbarian has rage, where it's awesome while raging and so-so otherwise. (Except, of course, that the arcane inspector is still a wizard casting the full suite of wizard spells, so there's not really an "Off" mode as such.)

The issue is that it's a very fiddly process to get the benefits of "On" mode, such that it doesn't strike me that the arcane inspector has a reliable way of getting to take advantage of those benefits.


As for the names of everything, they are placeholders... Every single one of those were something very different before this. Please don't focus on the name of the trait/ability instead of the trait/ability itself.

I'm pretty sure the length of my post, and hence of your reply, belies the notion that I "focus[ed] on the name of the trait/ability" in place of the mechanical features themselves. But paying attention to such things matters.

Let me put it this way: when you read through class features and subclass features in, say, the PHB, you'll find they're either straight-up descriptions of what the feature is/does (e.g. "Extra Attack", "Sneak Attack"), or they are thematically appropriate for the feature. For instance, the Evoker wizard's "Sculpt Spells" feature creates a poetic image of what the evoker is doing: sculpting the magic of the spell, so to speak, to create areas of relative safety in a fireball, ice storm, etc. Usually, each feature's mechanics, title, and such descriptive text as exists linking it to the setting/"fluff"/narrative situation, are all holistically and thematically linked together. In the case of features belonging to a subclass, it helps both to (a) differentiate characters who have taken that subclass from those who take other subclasses, such that evokers play differently mechanically and seem different, thematically speaking, from other types of wizard, and to (b) give each subclass flavour and mechanics matching what the name suggests it's about. To take evokers as an example, since they are the "blaster" wizards in D&D, the evoker mechanics that aren't noncombat features (admittedly, the only one of those is Evocation Savant) all enhance the mechanical and thematic idea of "blaster".

Given all that it is, I daresay, a reasonable expectation that homebrew material take equal care to link mechanics and descriptive text together, and in the case of subclasses, to also support the distinct identity and the "look and feel" (as it were) of the subclass, instead of just being "powerful feature at level X".

For an arcane tradition called "arcane inspector", many of the features are just... "blasty", like it's a variant evoker or something. If you called someone an "arcane inspector", frankly, it makes me think of Sherlock Holmes-as-D&D wizard. So, some extra chops in divination, benefits for Insight, Investigation, and Perception, and even the arcane adversary feature fits (gotta catch and stop your culprit!). What doesn't spring to mind are either "elemental POWAH!" or unusual upcasting.

So yes, it matters that the mechanics and narrative/descriptive text don't match up, and it matters that the features don't reflect the overarching theme or idea of the subclass, because in 5e, those things are meant to match up and be thematic.


There is a reason to having the prerequisites for the tradition... It's designed to seem slightly overpowered in general, so as a small balancing aspect it forces you to focus on the direction the tradition requires, instead of any other. (why would a wizard that is supposed to be focussing on magic be putting points into charisma instead? I've seen it happen)

Why wouldn't a wizard have a high Charisma? Wizards can be persuasive or intimidating (I would be intimidated by someone I knew could genuinely tell the laws of physics to shut up and sit down just by wiggling their fingers). Shouldn't it be down to the player creating any given wizard to decide whether they are wise or not, or personable or not?

I mean, sure, there are published subclasses that have racial prerequisites (the Battlerager and the Bladesinger), but in both cases Wizards freely tells you that you-as-DM can ignore them in your own settings (or even in your own games in the Forgotten Realms).

I would say that if you really want players to invest in their wizard's Wisdom scores, the subclass' features should key off of Wisdom somehow. People who like to play wizards might complain because they're not used to being MAD, but you can just point to classes like paladin, ranger, or barbarian, and tell them to live with it.


As for the 8th and 10th level abilities being "not something wizards do normally"... So what? There are plenty of other subclasses that throw in non-thematic traits/abilities, so why is that so bad for this one?

I'll get to the 8th-level feature in a bit. As for the 10th-level feature, I was unclear, for which I apologise. The point I was making at the time wasn't that funny business with spell slots ought to be the sole preserve of sorcerers or warlocks, it was that such funny business invariably caps at 5th level slots. Having written that, now that I've thought on the matter some, IMO funny business with spell slots should probably remain the preserve of sorcerers and warlocks, which I will discuss in further detail below.


2nd level ability: You do realize that if the enemy only has 0-1 saving throw proficiency, that only takes 1 minute to apply the bonus? It's too slow for combat intentionally. Alternatively, maybe I could make it so that you could spend 1 spell slot to turn an enemy into an Adversary for the duration of combat... How does that sound? (makes it workable in a surprise combat situation, where it wasn't before)

Also, not all combat ends in "kill or be killed" in a good homebrew campaign... At least not IMO.

The problem is you're not likely to meet creatures that you'll want to treat as your arcane adversary outside of combat, unless your DM is running a campaign where that sort of thing is likely to happen.

That being the case, the fact that it's not really usable in combat is a real setback. You can't count on this subclass being used in a campaign that meets your personal criteria for what is "good", after all.

What I would suggest, then, is as follows:
- You can designate a creature as an arcane adversary by using an action; it remains an arcane adversary of yours until you or it dies, or until you end the effect as another action, or until it ceases to be one automatically when you create additional adversaries, as described below
- You gain the specified benefits (higher spell save DCs when that creature makes saving throws against your spells, and whatnot) for 1 minute
- Once the benefits expire, after you finish a long rest, you can use a bonus action to regain them
- You can have some limited number of arcane adversaries (whether that's three, as per the original feature description, or perhaps, say, your Wisdom modifier, to touch on a suggested earlier point)
- Once you have reached your upper limit of arcane adversaries, you can't designate a new adversary until you finish a long rest
- If you designate a new arcane adversary while you are at your limit, one of your previous arcane adversaries ceases to be one.


6th level ability: How is it redundant? If there is a group of 15 enemies, and your 3 Adversaries are in that group, you get the bonus to all 15 of them... It wasn't that way for the level 2 version. As for the object subpart... Say you've come across a trap you can't bypass, so you want to disable it. Just study it for a few minutes, and you get a bonus to being able to disarm it. Not that hard to see a use for it if you're not exclusively focussing on combat.

Interesting suggestion of switching it to INT instead of CHA... I like it. I'll be switching that up shortly.

That wasn't clear from the text of the feature. Also, it's really underpowered, because unless your DM is very accommodating, it seems extraordinarily circumstantial. I'd pick, say, the bonus to spell damage rolls, and say that you get that benefit against each creature friendly to one of your arcane adversaries that is within 60 feet of same.


The overpowered 8th level one is something I need help making less overpowered, but you didn't make any suggestions to bring it in line besides "No, just no." This isn't helpful. [Cut and paste from earlier in the post.]

8th level ability: What if the damage bonus was linked to the Adversary, not just a general damage bonus? Would be very powerful against bosses, (its intent) but not OP against the little guys. And yes, it is too powerful, maybe If it's dropped to using only one level 1 slot, and not escalating ever? Maybe switching it to applying a weakness to a type of elemental damage instead of a flat damage bonus?

Also, yes it's replacing the customization, that is intentional. Minor railroading as a balancing restriction.

The bottom line is that, in my view, no subclass feature should ever, ever, EVER muck around with the ability score improvement progression. Period. End of discussion.

That said, I should have just said that instead of just saying it didn't sit right with me.

What I ended up going into detail about was how this subclass feature overshadowed another class' primary shtick - paladin's smites are one of the things that defines the class. That is another thing that doesn't sit right with me. Not to mention that, as a wizard, why would you be burning spell slots except to cast spells? Expending spell slots on smiting is for those deity-bothering knuckleheads - real magicians use magic the way it was meant to be used. (As we shall soon see, Wizards of the Coast also gets up to overshadowing Divine Smite in UA content, but that does not make the concept any less irksome.)

As much as I still strongly recommend ditching this feature (or moving it to another level and ditching something else), if you absolutely insist on retaining it at 8th level, seeing as you're the one writing the homebrew, then by all means retain it. If it must be that way, then I should at least recommend it be toned down.

I would consider one of two ways of revising this feature:

(1) You make it work more like a similar feature that the Unearthed Arcana Lore Mastery arcane tradition possesses, where whenever you expend a spell slot to cast a spell, you can use your bonus action and expend one additional spell slot to boost the damage. The lore master feature lets you expend a 1st-level spell slot to add 2d10 force damage to each damage roll you make on the turn you cast the spell, but not on any subsequent turns of the spell's duration, if there are any. I'm not a fan of the numbers the lore master feature puts out, because it's so much better than the paladin's smite for the same resource expenditure (a 1st-level spell slot), but the mechanical concept is sound. For your feature, you could expend a spell slot of up to 5th level to add some amount of damage to each of the spell's damage rolls on the turn you cast it, proportional to the level of the expended slot. The damage type could be force or it could match the list of damage types you could choose from in the original version of this feature. Because it's variable how much damage you deal (you might only be able to catch two or three creatures, or you might get lucky and catch a horde), you probably want to balance it around matching the paladin's smite damage for the same level of slot at around 4 damage rolls. (Divine Smite caps at 5d8 damage, which you can get by expending a 4th-level slot, so it's also okay if you overshoot that when expending a 5th-level slot.)

(2) You make it work over time, but deal less damage. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to expend a spell slot. For the next minute, you can add force damage (or damage types as you originally defined) equal to, say, either your Wisdom modifier or to the level of the expended slot, to one spell or weapon damage roll on each of your turns. If it's a reasonable amount of damage over 5 turns, then it's basically balanced: you're unhappy if the combat goes short, and pleased as punch if it goes long.


10th level ability: How about I put a maximum slot level cap in there as well? Can't be used for higher than 4th level spells? I intentionally drew a little from the other classes for this one, because it always bothered me that the Wizards with all their knowledge and ability, couldn't put two slots together and get a better slot, but any idiot Sorcerer could. (I've played with min-max players that had INT of 6 or less on their Sorcerers, but somehow they were always able to do everything without trouble, how does that make sense?)

Okay. So, getting to mix-and-match spell slots by converting them into sorcery points (and back) is one of the sorcerer's main shticks. It represents their ability to manipulate the raw currents of magical power flowing through the world without all the fussiness that clerics and wizards have to get up to. (To be honest, IMO the sorcerer should have just used the DMG spell point variant, with their extra sorcery points, as their spellcasting mechanic, instead of having fixed Vancian slots like everyone else.) That's nothing to do with how intelligent they are, it's to do with their innate magical power. Just like any tiger worth its stripes knows how to hunt, any sorcerer just ought to be able to mix-and-match spell slots.

Wizards don't normally get that shtick, because they don't do magic that way. They do it the book learnin' way.

Now, if you wanted to homebrew an arcane tradition that let a wizard do some sorcerer-ish stuff without having to multiclass into sorcerer (representing a wizard who uses research, study, and careful experiment to mimic the powers of sorcerers, instead of coming into that power through a sorcerous origin), that would be well and good. But this wizard, the "arcane inspector", is not that wizard.

So, again, my strongest recommendation is that this feature needs a complete re-write so that it makes sense for an "arcane inspector". But if you can't bear to part with combining spell slots, I would revise it so that it caps at 5th-level spell slots and so that it is, in some way, less efficient than the sorcerer's Font of Magic.


14th level "secondary" ability: I wanted to have it be usable more often and for a cost, rather than a no-cost limited number of uses. Basically, it would be hard to justify using it on higher level spells without being in an extremely tight situation, but you could use it any time for free for little things. Maybe change to free for cantrip to level 1, and 1 slot cost for everything higher? (remember, this allows for verbal requirement spells to work despite being silenced, or motion requirement spells despite being restrained)

Well, from 3rd level on, sorcerers get to cast a spell without requiring verbal or somatic components for the cost of half a 1st-level spell slot (since creating a 1st-level slot costs 2 sorcery points, and Subtle Spell metamagic costs 1), and they can do it until they run out of both sorcery points and spell slots to convert into sorcery points.

Spending a spell slot of any level to use this feature is, by comparison, an atrocious waste of a slot.

Of course, now it turns out that we have a second feature (out of five) that directly mimics something the sorcerer does, which isn't doing this arcane tradition any favours in terms of making it seem distinct. Of the two features (being fancy upcasting and this one), mimicking Subtle Spell is actually something I can see fitting the idea of an "arcane inspector". I would just do it differently than the sorcerer does, which is why I think not having a resource cost but instead a usage limit is better. Again, if you want to encourage a high Wisdom, maybe make the usage limit a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Also, this would make a better feature at 10th level (or even at 6th level) than at 14th level.


PS: What player or GM wouldn't count a long rest the same as a short rest for the purposes of regaining an ability that recharges after a short rest? It's the difference of resting for an hour or 8 hours, why would resting longer NOT recharge it at least as much as a shorter time?

I mentioned it was a nitpick because it's a small detail. That said, not for nothing did I make a point of bringing it up, because every single feature that recharges on a rest in officially-published material explicitly specifies that it recharges when you either finish a long rest, or when you finish a short or long rest, and never just when you finish a short rest. As such, it's off-putting and contrary to the 5e design aesthetic to leave that text out, no matter how self-evident it may seem. It's just one of those little attention-to-detail things.

BTGbullseye
2018-08-09, 05:35 PM
Ok, so I took the many suggestions posted here, and combined them with several that I got from another guy I know that might be my next DM... Let me know what you think. (please forgive me if I missed something along the way)

Also, yes, I realize this is becoming more of a crossover between Sorcerer and Wizard, but that's kinda what I'm going for.

Arcane Inspector (all ability names subject to change, including the title name)

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You now have Focus Points. Maximum number of points is double your INT + WIS modifiers. You regain 1 point per hour of rest, up to your maximum. (2 per hour if resting in comfort)

Arcane Inspection

At 2nd level, you can closely observe creatures using magic to discover their weaknesses. You can use an Action or Bonus Action to spend Focus Points to make any creature you can currently sense become your Arcane Adversary for 1 day per Focus Point spent, or until it dies. You can have one Arcane Adversary per spellcaster level, and can choose to replace any current Adversary with another for 2 Focus Points.

You can use a Bonus Action to have your choice of +2 to spell attack rolls, +1 to your spell DC, +1 to spell damage rolls, or -2 to your Arcane Adversary's spell DC for 1 turn. You can also add your choice of INT or WIS modifier to any skill check when used against your Arcane Adversary.

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Arcane Adaptation

At 6th level, you are able to bypass your Arcane Adversary’s defenses. You can spend 1 Focus Point to ignore 1 magical resistance of your choice or turn an immunity that your Adversary has into a resistance for 1 turn. (effect does not stack with Elemental Adept feats) You can add both your INT and WIS modifiers to any skill check made against your Arcane Adversary.

You can now also Inspect non-creature objects, and make them an Adversary. You have advantage on all rolls concerning non-creature Arcane Adversaries in addition to the regular effects.

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Elemental Weakening (subclass-specific additional Feat option)

At 8th level, you can manipulate your Arcane Adversary’s life force enough to weaken them to the elements. You can spend 3 Focus Points to give your Arcane Adversary a weakness (+50% damage) to your choice of elemental damage.(acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder) This effect lasts for 3 rounds. (can not be used if the Adversary is resistant or immune to the damage type normally) You can not change the type of damage weakness after it has been cast, and it can not be recast until the previous casting has ended.

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Overwhelming Power

At 10th level, you can spend one Focus Point to add an additional spell slot to your casting of a spell to effectively cast the spell with a higher level slot, this consumes both spell slots. This ability can not be used with spells of level 5 or higher. This does not allow for casting a 4th level spell using a pair of 2nd level slots, and can not produce a spell slot effect greater than 9th level. EXAMPLE: Casting a Magic Missile with a 3rd level slot, can be augmented with another 3rd level slot to have the same effect as casting with a single 6th level slot. This uses both 3rd level spell slots.

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Exceptional Focus

At 14th level, while you are concentrating on a spell, you have advantage on all checks to maintain concentration. In addition, your Arcane Adversaries are incapable of ever directly disrupting your concentration.

You are now also able to forgo your choice of either the Verbal or Somatic component of your spells, not both. This costs one Focus Point, free for cantrips.