ZerglingOne
2010-02-09, 07:40 AM
Anyone who has ever played a first level wizard knows how utterly painful it can be. You enter combat, at best you have 3 first level spells prepared. 1 from a specialty school, 1 from wizard, and 1 from bonus int (at least I hope so). 3 rounds and you're reduced to lousy cantrips. Hell, it's probably even shorter than that if you think you may be facing ranged opponents and want to survive (casting mage armor and shield).
I thus propose two tweaks to the magic system:
Tweak 1: Since shield can't be conferred to another player and you're unlikely to pass a mage armor to someone else, why not just count them as dispellable magic "equipment" that occupy spell slots? This allows a mage caught in an ambush to have better AC than he normally might. Why this tweak? While the shield spell has a significantly shorter duration than mage armor, I have known of very few wizards these spells wear off of in any given combat scenario. Those same wizards always rest after a combat scenario to regain spells anyway, just have them as an "always on" should they occupy a spell slot. You could further tweak them and require a standard action to activate each one.
Tweak 2: Allow the use of bonus slots immediately. What do I mean? A +4 int modifier confers a bonus slot to each of your first 4 levels of spells. This proposed tweak would give the wizard 3 higher level spell slots to occupy with his lower level spells, and even use metamagic feats such as heighten spell right off the bat. Why this tweak? A first level wizard could have up to 3 extra spells if he has 18 int, these spells would be even more powerful if he could metamagic them, thus opening new builds to try at level 1. This would in no way allow a wizard/sorcerer to learn level 2, 3, or 4 spells, just use the bonus spell slots they have in them.
Essentially, this is just making the wizard less fragile and more versatile at low levels. As he gains in experience, he would level out with the current way wizards are by the time he gets 5th level spells. Personally I don't think this is too rigged, but that's because I thought it up and wouldn't be posting here if I didn't want someone's opinion on it.
I thus propose two tweaks to the magic system:
Tweak 1: Since shield can't be conferred to another player and you're unlikely to pass a mage armor to someone else, why not just count them as dispellable magic "equipment" that occupy spell slots? This allows a mage caught in an ambush to have better AC than he normally might. Why this tweak? While the shield spell has a significantly shorter duration than mage armor, I have known of very few wizards these spells wear off of in any given combat scenario. Those same wizards always rest after a combat scenario to regain spells anyway, just have them as an "always on" should they occupy a spell slot. You could further tweak them and require a standard action to activate each one.
Tweak 2: Allow the use of bonus slots immediately. What do I mean? A +4 int modifier confers a bonus slot to each of your first 4 levels of spells. This proposed tweak would give the wizard 3 higher level spell slots to occupy with his lower level spells, and even use metamagic feats such as heighten spell right off the bat. Why this tweak? A first level wizard could have up to 3 extra spells if he has 18 int, these spells would be even more powerful if he could metamagic them, thus opening new builds to try at level 1. This would in no way allow a wizard/sorcerer to learn level 2, 3, or 4 spells, just use the bonus spell slots they have in them.
Essentially, this is just making the wizard less fragile and more versatile at low levels. As he gains in experience, he would level out with the current way wizards are by the time he gets 5th level spells. Personally I don't think this is too rigged, but that's because I thought it up and wouldn't be posting here if I didn't want someone's opinion on it.