Iron Heroes Arcanist: did the designers read their own class?

[Starbuck_II]

I decided to get a PDF because I was curious of Iron Heroes (plus cheap).
I thought it was a decent chance at low powered game till I read Arcanist + magic rules.

An Arcanist can kick a Wizards butt. I'm serious because you can do the Project image trick from Buldar's Gate 2 (similar to astral Projection trick in 3.5).
Why? Illusions that are x% real are only fake for damage nothing else. Best chance he has is disrupting Concentration to beat you (but at mastery 3 it lasts concentration +2 rounds).
Every spell the illusion mage casts isn't using your mana.

Granted, you need 3rd lv before you get these awesome effects (minimum 10% real), but I digress.

Even drawback: can't use illusion for attacking due to will save interact mechanic (Wizards have good Will saves), but you can boost DC by inputing additional mana (although that increases channel failing) if you go that route.
But free buffs are nothing to sneeze at.

Beyond that he has an Eldritch Blast choice (at will) like a 3.5 warlock called Eldritch Dart (or something). Shoots 1/attacks (so if multiple attacks, multiple darts).

Evocation sucks, but geez way for setting/flavor to be opposed to mechanics.

This may be old news, but seems scary the designers can fail this bad at conjoining setting flavor and mechanics.

Also Conjuration apparentlty is based on HD not CR so that might also be broken with creativity.

[Tinydwarfman]

It's no secret, the arcanist was put in at last minute because people wanted some kind of mage. Just play without it, or better yet, use one the fixes online.

Ah, but I still love how being smarter makes your spells harder to cast. That really cracked me up.

But really, how exactly does an arcanist kill a 3.5 wizard? I'm not really seeing it.

[Starbuck_II]

They fixed that in the errata about Int being bad. But yeah that was silly.

[Flickerdart]

Ah, but I still love how being smarter makes your spells harder to cast. That really cracked me up.

Obviously, the smarter you are, the more you realize that magic shouldn't work.

[Swordgleam]

Arcanist is kind of broken, but it's also supposed to have major RP drawbacks. Yeah, you can kill stuff with spells.. and then have everyone who sees you do it tell everyone they know until the kingdom's entire army has assembled for the sole purpose of wiping you out like the dangerous abomination you are.

[Starbuck_II]

Arcanist is kind of broken, but it's also supposed to have major RP drawbacks. Yeah, you can kill stuff with spells.. and then have everyone who sees you do it tell everyone they know until the kingdom's entire army has assembled for the sole purpose of wiping you out like the dangerous abomination you are.

No one kills with spells much I'd assume: ineffecient.

You summon a beatsick to kill or buff/debuff.

[Gametime]

I really like the idea behind the Arcanist's design; the whole "build-a-spell" paradigm appeals to me a lot more than the standard D&D Vancian casting.

The actual implementation of the spells is pretty borked, though. Keep in mind that Arcanists don't get all that much mana, though; getting the better options on your spells will run you down quickly. (Not that a broken-three-times-a-day-and-useless-the-rest class is all that much better than a broken-all-day class, in terms of game design, but so it goes.)

Iron Heroes is a fun game, but I wouldn't recommend keeping the Arcanist in it.

[Swordgleam]

No one kills with spells much I'd assume: ineffecient.

You summon a beatsick to kill or buff/debuff.

Indirectly kill stuff with spells, then.

I was looking at taking a level of arcanist with my man-at-arms, just to up his overall "jack of all trades" factor. But he already had a level of berserker, so it seemed like it would be a bit much.

Iron Heroes is an awesome system, aside from the arcanist.

[Tinydwarfman]

Actually, I recently found a very nice looking fix for it. Where was it... Ah ha! Anybody care to take a closer look?

[Swordgleam]

I've heard good things about that particular fix, though I haven't tried it myself.

[Hurlbut]

So you guys know about Spiritualist in the Player's Companion?

[Umael]

Every spell you cast as an arcanist has a chance to blow up in your face.

Every spell.

Now please tell me how the arcanist is so powerful again?

[Greenish]

Arcanist is kind of broken, but it's also supposed to have major RP drawbacks. Yeah, you can kill stuff with spells.. and then have everyone who sees you do it tell everyone they know until the kingdom's entire army has assembled for the sole purpose of wiping you out like the dangerous abomination you are.

Never leave witnesses alive. Diligence, ladies and gentlemen, is of utmost importance when dealing with eldritch energies.

[Gametime]

Every spell you cast as an arcanist has a chance to blow up in your face.

Every spell.

Now please tell me how the arcanist is so powerful again?

In theory, this is a good balancing mechanism. I think the idea is that the Arcanist relies on skills, feats, and manipulation most of the time, rather than magic. In practice, though, this means they'll have almost nothing to do in combat unless they're willing to risk big punishment, and having a class that's broken half the time and punching itself in the face the other half isn't particularly fun to play.

I think the idea behind the Arcanist is sound; the implementation is lacking.