New OOTS products from CafePress
New OOTS t-shirts, ornaments, mugs, bags, and more
Results 1 to 5 of 5
  1. - Top - End - #1
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Princess Tracy's Avatar

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Scotland
    Gender
    Female

    Default [3.P] Wizard Arcane School - "Generalist" PEACH

    Spoiler
    Show
    So I recently got the '1001 Spells' for my birthday. Barring a few misprints and things that weren't quite updated for Pathfinder, it was pretty cool, giving enough variety to each of teh wizard schools that dumping even my less favoured schools of Enchantment and Necromancy is no longer optimal, so it got me thinking of an alternative to barring schools and keeping variety without those pretty lame Universalist abilities. Here's my take on it. I drew from inspiration from what I think was a Gray Elf substitution level for Wizard back in 3.5 but I only remember hearing of it second hand. I thought thus up off the top of my head and thought it seemed pretty solid, and worth sharing even.


    Some wizards do not seek specialisation but to master all forms of magic available to the arcane professionals. Among them are adventurers who seek to learn of the many great arts and will travel the world to hone their skills, while some are just skittish and indecisive. Whatever the case may be, it remains true that few wizards are trained with greater versatility than a Generalist, and these Wizard Archetype should excel for the purposes of such varied mastery.

    Generalist


    Replaces Arcane School. Generalists have no barred schools.

    Wealth of Knowledge (ex): Whenever you gain a level in wizard, instead of learning 2 spells automatically you learn 3, no 2 of which can be of the same school of magic.

    Flashy Stockpile (su): While lacking the endurance of a specialist, a Generalist still keeps a good supply of his best spells. Generalists gain 1 extra prepared spell of the highest level they can cast each day.

    Metamagic Master (su): At 8th level, the generalist learns the versatility that comes with Metamagic and how bets to apply it. Every day when he prepares spells, the Generalist has a stock of spell levels equal to half this class level. These spell levels can be used to lower the spell level increases of spells with metamagic feats applied to them to a minimum of 0. You can only apply this reduction to 1 metamagic feat per prepared spell. This does not allow a Generalist to cast a spell whose modified level would otherwise be too high for him to cast - for instance an 8th level wizard could use these levels to apply Enlarge Spell to a Fireball spell, but would not apply Maximise Spell to the same spell. He can use this decrease when preparing spells, or if he reduces the metamagic level adjustment of the spell to 0, can apply ONE metamagic feat to a spell spontaneously, without preparing the metamagic adjustment ahead of time or increasing casting time. At 20th level, the modified level of the spell affected by the reduced metamagic level adjustment can exceed your highest available spell level - for instance, you could give up 3 spell levels to cast a Maximised Time Stop. This ability does not allow you to apply a metamagic feat you do not know.


    ---

    Thoughts?
    Last edited by Princess Tracy; 2012-07-09 at 12:35 PM.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Princess Tracy's Avatar

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Scotland
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: [3.P] Wizard Arcane School - "Generalist" PEACH

    Reserved in case I think of any good feats or Arcane Discoveries.

    Post away!

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Princess Tracy's Avatar

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Scotland
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: [3.P] Wizard Arcane School - "Generalist" PEACH

    I think I may have made the language a bit sloppy for teh metamagic abilities - any tips on how to fix that? Is it clear to you folks?

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Morph Bark's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Freljord

    Default Re: [3.P] Wizard Arcane School - "Generalist" PEACH

    While I'm not familiar enough with the Archetypes of Pathfinder to comment on the balance with the other Wizard ones (though I do believe they're still Tier 1 in Pathfinder, so it doesn't matter that much, I guess), it does very much convey the generalist feel. Metamagic Master feels fair since it can only apply to one metamagic feat per spell, though beware that that can be abused. For instance, at level 20 it would mean 5 free Quickened spells, or 2 at level 8. Perhaps make it that it can go no lower than a +1 increase, but able to apply to two metamagic feats, at level 8 or otherwise gained at a higher level?

    Also, why did you change the font and size entirely? I don't get why people change the font and size of their entire posts, it hurts my eyes, they have trouble adapting each time, which is especially troublesome with large fonts. @_@
    Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Princess Tracy's Avatar

    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Scotland
    Gender
    Female

    Default Re: [3.P] Wizard Arcane School - "Generalist" PEACH

    I realised all the cool kids were using other fonts, so I thought if I did that it would make me cool.

    Well, the ability gives levels equal to half your level, not your full level, so at level 8 you would have 4 spell levels worth of decrease. Not sure if that was clear. I chose level 8 because at level 8 (or 6, sometimes) a specialist wizard gains an ability in Pathfinder, and I thought since everyone usually gets nifty cap abilities at level 20 I too might as well throw in something a little broken. But then, it's nothing you couldn't accomplish with Metamagic Rods if you have the gold. The intention of the metamagic ability is that only one instance of one metamagic feat can apply to one spell with the reduction. Perhaps I should make that clearer somehow? I was thinking of making the ability to apply the metamagic on the fly a feat rather than part of teh ability itself, but I'm not sure - it wouldn't even be for balance reasons so much as it would be for the sake of laying out the abilities a bit more clearly. This is basically my first homebrew, so I guess poor presentation is to be expected.


    Perhaps the wording can be - 'the decrease can be no greater than the highest level adjustment of the metamagic feat to be applied to the spell'? Same meaning, it just make sit a little harder to break for munchkins. Maybe, I don't know
    Last edited by Princess Tracy; 2012-07-09 at 08:09 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •