Quote Originally Posted by Amesoeurs View Post
That sounds interesting, but it sounds like it might overshadow Rogues. Disregarding roleplayers or people with a preference for Rogue, why be a Rogue when you can be a lock picking, trap disabling caster with access to Polymorph?
Note that my Transmuter does NOT get access to traditional Polymorph, or PAO (which I consider too unbalancing). They simply get an ability to manipulate the physical properties of non-living non-animated objects. Consider Full Metal Alchemist (without the blatant cheating) for possible uses.

They don't get a whole lot of damage output, which is their downside. A Rogue can easily out-damage a Transmuter, particularly with TWF + Precision + UMD wands to cover immunities to precision-based damage. Also, they don't get any Skill Masteries, which a Rogue can easily obtain. So a pure Rogue can still be better at picking locks and opening doors, simply because once he hits level 10, he can pick up Skill Mastery and never have to worry about failing any rolls after that.


The end product would be 6 to 7 casters, each representing one or two schools. Beguiler and Dread Necromancer in, and I want to fool with Evocation and maybe the Warmage class itself to improve the blaster archetype a bit.
What book is the Warmage in? Maybe I could try to fiddle around with him a bit and see what I can come up with.

Then I might make a generalist Wizard. He casts with a spell book and has fewer spells per day than the Wizard, but more spells availible and has to prepare them. HOWEVER, he won't have unlimited spells availible. I'll say that when the Wizard scribes a spell, he memorizes a fragment of it, and it floats around his head half formed, partially memorized. When he sits down with his spell book, he can fully form a number of the spells he knows so that he can successfully cast them. He won't be able to switch spells in his spell book whenever he wants, and will have to commit to spells as a Sorcerer does, but will be able to replace spells at certain levels as a Sorcerer does. He'll be able to copy down any spells he knows into a new spell book from memory, I'll figure out some fluff on that, so if he loses his spell book, he can't simply write new spells into it.

The Sorcerer will be getting possibly faster progression or more spells known, as well as some class abilities. I'm going to be making mechanics for blood lines à la the Pathfinder and Ultimate Sorcerers. He'll also get Eschew Materials automatically, and I might even make it a class ability and remove it as a feat.
I'd be careful with that, if I were you. Personally, I think that if you want to limit power, don't let in a class that can ignore that limit.

So, in summation:

Specialist Wizards will be replaced by: Beguiler, Warmage, Dread Necromancer, etc.
Unspecialized Wizards will be replaced by: a less Batman-y generalist Wizard. His flavour will be a more versatile caster who, due to a lack of natural casting ability, must prepare his spells and cannot prepare as many.
Sorcerers will be replaced by Sorcerers with blood lines with slightly buffed casting.
I'm working on a Summoner now, should be ready in a few days. It's a heavy Conjuration-based class with lots of Summoning, a bit of Blasting, and some general utility. Specifically doesn't get as much battlefield control out of the book, but you can pick it up with Advanced Learning. It'll have a pretty heavy elemental flavor, though... that might step on the Warmage's toes...