The Wizard and his Familar (3.5/3.PF)

[Deepbluediver]

Also, what about universal spells ?

I'll address the easier question here first; I just forgot about them. I'll add in a clarification, as well as a caveat for 0th-level spells, which I had not intended to restrict.

One problem that immediately comes to mind is that not all spell schools are of equal power.

No, they aren't. And because of the level of complexity involved, it would take some one far more skillful than I to guarantee they where perfectly equal, if it is at all possible. But some one who picks Abjuration at 1st level should be better at abjuration spells than any other wizard is at them. I'm thinking about adding in another class feature somewhere before 20th level to help with this, probably relating to metamagic, again.

With regards to overall balance: if your goal is to simply build the most powerful character you can, I'm certain that there will still be tricks you can use to min-max him a step above everyone else. My objective is just to reduce the disparity significantly.
My criteria are (in approximate order of importance)
-Eliminate Tier 1
-Eliminate most, if not all, of Tier 2
-Bring Tiers 4, 5, and 6 up to at least the tier 3-4 border

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Obviously, the classes closest to tier 3 to start with tend to be easier to modify to fit these parameters. Since a wizard is 98% about the magic, then a lot of it's changes come from altering magic, and that was so extensive most of the notes went in another post.

A fighter should ALWAYS be good in a fight, even if he is still not an expert at much else. Since combat is a big part of most D&D he'll see a fair amount of action, but any wizard with access to more than one school could probably still outrank him in the versatility test.

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hint: if you know you are going to be playing in a campaign that is 90% politics in the court of the gnomish king, don't play a fighter, no matter how much you like them

further hint: if your DM refuses to give you any tips about what kind of game he is going to be running, consider finding a new DM.

To conclude: Anyone who wants to play a wizard still has access to just about everything the old wizard did, and maybe even a little more. But any particular wizard at a given moment might have to struggle to find the right spell. I don't want to stop players from feeling powerful or more importantly, have fun, but it should take a little more effort for the wizard to become god-emperor of the universe before lunch time.