Dungeons & Dragons Heroic Edition

[Maho-Tsukai]

Very Interesting, if I do say so myself. Though I still can see the beguiler and Dread Necromancer working in your game if you altered them to be based on your system. How is this possible? Well, you've already managed to fix some spell-per day classes by giving them a system similar to a warlock, so why can't you do the same for Beguilers and DNs? DNs and beguilers both get other abilities besides spells, so, feasibly they could use a warlock-esc SLA based system and still be effective. You would just have to whip up some homebrew invocations, though. Heck, the warlock already gets an Invocation perfect for the DN, called "The Dead Walk" or something like that. And while these classes lack the spamable warlock blast, with an invocation/SLA based system they would still operate rather well since these classes can replace the spammable attack with their own class abilities.

The reason I suggest this is because by taking out full casters, your losing some very iconic character types. While DNs and Beguilers are not as iconic as say a wizard, Necromancers and Illusionists are both iconic spellcaster types as far as fantasy goes. And while the warlock and dragonfire adapt are fine casters, some people may not like the "your ancestor had some fun with X magical creature, hence you got magic!" flavor of those classes and want to RP a more traditional spellcaster. The beguiler and DN can roughly simulate that kind of character.

A Beguiler could easily be RPed out as a scholarly mage who uses illusions to confuse and manipulate his enemies. Yeah, he gets the rogue abilities, but that can still fit into the character concept. I mean, I've seen movies where mages have to actually get their hands dirty. Oh, and since wizardly types are typically not big and buff, they would be more apt to fight like a rogue if they ever had to mix it up in melee, so the beguiler can still replicate a "scholarly mage" type well, especially since she's an int based class(Something your game lacks ATM). As for the Dread Necromancer, he's an iconic villain type, and in general a well known type of caster. A Dread Necro even if using a warlock/Invocation "spell" system can be RPed as a student of the dark arts, and again, that provides an alternate flavor to magic beyond the "I got my magic power because my mom had a lot of fun with a dragon/fiend" flavor some people may be turned off by.

A word of caution, though. If you decide to fix the DN, you should most definitely seriously nutter or outright get rid of Undead Mastery. The Dead walk would get rather insane with that class feature at it's current power level. I mean, there is little that is more overshadowing to everybody around you then having a massive undead army at your command. My take would be for the DN to be more like a warlock using the dead walk. He could get some undead out of his SLAs, but would be more focused on using debuffs, fear effects and hitting people with his scythe and/or damaging class features.