How are Wu Jen in play?

[Zenos]

I was looking over CompleteArc the other day, and my gaze fell on the Wu Jen class. I think I might be itnerested in playing one if I find a game which allows such stuff, but I wonder what is the difference in play style when playing a Wu Jen than when playing another prepared caster?

[Curmudgeon]

Mechanically they're OK. The problem is that there aren't nearly enough Wu Jen spells for them to be operating on an equal footing with other casters. Spell Compendium even dropped the Wu Jen (and other non-core caster) designations from all the spells, so that means you have to go back to Complete Arcane to find which spells Wu Jen are allowed to cast, then to Spell Compendium to get the updated version of most of those spells.

Basically they're an orphaned class.

[Zenos]

Okay. But I guess that if the lack of spells is too great, I might try to work something out with the DM. Is there anything worthy of focusing on with the Wu Jen? They do have a rather different spell list in comparison with sorc/wiz spell list.

[woodenbandman]

Unfortunately different means bad in this case. I've seen a wujen, and he couldn't even take out a psychic warrior and a cleric that needed 2 rounds of buff time. A wizard would have killed them by then, but not the wujen. He even had a fighter to help him.

It's not like they're the worst class ever, they're just way worse than a wizard. If you're cool with that (most people are, wizards are brokenly brokennned broke), then go for it. They're fairly interesting.

[Deth Muncher]

If played in context (i.e. Oriental Adventures) they're just fine.