| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Xar Zarath
Senior Scribe
Malaysia
552 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Jul 2012 : 06:45:38
|
Well, recently there has been an incident of sorts at our last gaming session. We play 3.5e (4e did not happen! ) but still use the setting and we had to fight an army, mind you we had to protect a sparsely defended city/castle and were barely holding on... My other members, we went with the classic wizard(me) fighter(leader) rogue(sneaky fellow) and priest(ilmater). It was in Chult if i recall correctly, and it was an army of ugly lizard things...
Anyway the army of lizzies(thats what we called them anyway) broke into the castle/city and we were fighting in the streets, and we were about 15/16th level and had to separate. My DM and i have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship and once cornered into a corner i had to fight with only a little magic left to me, I mean i expended every ring and scroll i had the last and finally i thought i could escape but with a wicked streak of dm-wickedness he put another group of lizzies to fight me, naturally i only had a dagger of +1(dont judge me i prefer to fight behind the fighter ) to fight with but there was a scimitar which i forgot about(spoils of war) kept in a bag of holding, my dm completely forgot about it too. Anyways i try to use it and apparently its a vampiric scimitar but my dm refuses me the use of it, saying that i have to have a proficiency...and then we start arguing me with logic against my dm's evilness and yes i did die, horribly so...
Do you guys get a little leeway in when rolling wizards i mean like using weapons and such? one of my arguments was the cleric and you know calling forth divine power and able to smash someones skull with a mace was a bit unfair, considering that you dont need a proficiency in real life to kill someone with say a spoon?
|
Everything ends where it begins. Period.
|
|
|
Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6358 Posts |
|
|
Kilvan
Senior Scribe
Canada
894 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2012 : 13:50:04
|
Dazzler has the right of it, you would have gotten a -4 penalty.
Yeah, your DM is rough, but as long as he's fair (and his games are fun)... |
 |
|
|
Xar Zarath
Senior Scribe
Malaysia
552 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2012 : 14:04:43
|
| We managed it and our dm was kind of sorry, i was raised back and got no level loss courtesy of our dm in exchange got some limitations so i guess its all good... |
Everything ends where it begins. Period.
|
|
|
|
Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4431 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2012 : 14:39:29
|
As has been pointed out, you can use weapons your not proficient with at a penalty.
As for how I make wizards, they always have some sort of melee-weapon/backup. For two feats: Miliita [Regional, PGtF] and Weapon Finesse [General, PHB] can add a lot of versatility to wizards and allow them to gain some good benefits from their more party-friendly spells like Haste. There are also quite a few spells that allow you to use magical-weapons like Decastave [Unapproachable East or Lost Empires of Faerūn, can't remember], Ice Dagger [Spell Compendium], Flame Dagger [Spell Compendium], Stone Fist [Spell Compendium], Cutting Hand [Spell Compendium, also known as Laeral's Cutting Hand, Magic of Faerūn] are all great spells that allows mages some form of melee combat capability without the need for feats. In conjunction with, they make pretty good secondary warriors.
|
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11744 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2012 : 14:50:50
|
| what you describe is exactly why my favorite character builds are eldritch knights. Not that I don't favor others as well, but I've always loved my fighter/wizards. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4431 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jul 2012 : 15:09:05
|
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
what you describe is exactly why my favorite character builds are eldritch knights. Not that I don't favor others as well, but I've always loved my fighter/wizards.
I'm more partial to the Pathfinder version of the Eldritch Knight and I absolutely love the Abjurant Champion PrC from Complete Mage. Really, that whole tome is shock-full of magical goodness from interesting prestige classes, Reserve Feats to keep my Fighter/Mage blasting enemies with Storm Bolt, Acidic Splatter, and Fiery Burst to new spells and magical items. That and Complete Champion are definitly in my top 10 v3.5 supplements. |
|
|
|
Xar Zarath
Senior Scribe
Malaysia
552 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jul 2012 : 13:43:09
|
I have also been thinking of maybe swapping( if we play a new campaign next time) the wizard bonus feat for a homebrew one something along the line for specialists:
Abjuration=some sort of resistance or early counterspell?
Evocation=maybe like a evasion or early resistance that scales with level?
Illusion=bluff?
Enchantment=maybe iron will or something?
Necromancy=capacity to control more undead?
Divination=sense motive, you know reading faces and body language, or something like that?
Transmutation=fortitute, or something to help improve polymorphing?
Conjuration=a spell like ability summoning? |
Everything ends where it begins. Period.
|
|
|
|
Kilvan
Senior Scribe
Canada
894 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jul 2012 : 14:07:46
|
I love this kind of change. It brings much diversity between characters of the same class, which is always good. You probably know the PrC Master Specialist (if you don't, check it out in Complete Mage), as it offers the same idea for specialist wizards.
|
|
|
|
Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4431 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jul 2012 : 14:15:48
|
quote:
Originally posted by Xar Zarath
I have also been thinking of maybe swapping( if we play a new campaign next time) the wizard bonus feat for a homebrew one something along the line for specialists:
Abjuration=some sort of resistance or early counterspell?
Evocation=maybe like a evasion or early resistance that scales with level?
Illusion=bluff?
Enchantment=maybe iron will or something?
Necromancy=capacity to control more undead?
Divination=sense motive, you know reading faces and body language, or something like that?
Transmutation=fortitute, or something to help improve polymorphing?
Conjuration=a spell like ability summoning?
There is something extreamly similiar in the Player's Handbook 2. It's an alternative class feature that you can get when you Specialize with a school of magic. You get a benefit associated with your school in place of your Familiar. I'm sure you can just as easily supplant this feature over a feat. |
|
|
|
Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jul 2012 : 14:32:34
|
Fantastic idea - you are turning specialists into PrCs. 
Which I like to re-work into Feat trees (it works out the same pretty much).
In my own homebrew rules, I give a Feat out every level, but divided the Feats into 1st tier, 2nd tier, and background (3rd tier), so they rotated. This sort of feat/customization would work well as a background feat. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
|
|
|
|
Xar Zarath
Senior Scribe
Malaysia
552 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jul 2012 : 06:07:41
|
| Does that mean it changes or scales with level? |
Everything ends where it begins. Period.
|
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Wizards and the Skills
