1st, a general note: this WAS meant to be a 1st [rough] draft - I did it partly to evoke comments and constructive thinking on the subject, as there weren’t any more comments on specifics for the spell lists.
[b]I will have to disagree when it comes to the matter of Evocation: the meaning of the school is to produce more (or anything) out of little (or nothing); thus, some spells are not exactly “unsuitable” for the magician… Not to mention that some pretty important damaging spells are Evo - 1/2 for the wizard.
Note that nature controlling, major destruction, and elemental spells are not included in the following list.
Examples:
Daylight
Leomund’s Tiny Hut
Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
Sending
Wall of Force
Contingency
[/b]
I consider Resilient Sphere and Wall of Force to be rather dramatic force effects; even if they’re not damaging, they hardly seem the “subtle” arts of the lesser path. Tiny Hut, while totally utilitarian, is still a rather dramatic and blatant force effect - these sorts of magic just seem to me more appropriate to the feel of true magic rather than the subtler arts of the magician. For dramatic effects, the magician must rely on the illusion of true magic, rather than the real thing.
I agree about Daylight, no problems adding that one on. Straight up missed Contigency and Sending, two spells I’d have no problem adding to the list.
Magic Missile is a pretty much standard arcane spell for a wizard-type class. Perhaps making it (and the other ones) a level higher might make it more palatibel, but dropping it entirely is not very good for the class, IMO.
Yeah, I debated alot on this one - I avoided it for the same reasons as above, which is it’s a dramatic force effect that seems as blatant as any elemental spells. Useful is very much in how things are played - a magician’s usefulness shouldn’t be like a combat mage: there to provide ranged magical firepower as sorcerers and wizards tend to do in D&D. If spells like Magic Missile are the stock and trade of true mages, then it makes a lot of sense that Magicians wouldn’t be most suited to such effects. Bards have no low-level attack spells, yet I think they do just fine so long as they’re willing to play a more indirect role.
See, I was taking the tack of dropping the elemental and force spells from all levels in order to compensate for the fact that the magician’s spell list was no longer exclusive to illusion and divination above 2nd level. Along the line of wizard specialists, evocation seemed the one school most directly opposed to the lesser path, and hence the most likely to be a banned school. However, I agree certain spells like Daylight, Sending, and Contingency seem very appropriate, so perhaps the better rule is generally, no evocation, but certain exceptions are appropriate.
Finally, if Use Magic Device remains a class skill for Magicians, they have the option of using any type of magic item, including true magic and divine magic. This one class skill expands the Magician’s potential quite a bit, so long as there are some items available to be used in the first place…
I also noticed the tendency to include planer spells here and ethereal and shadow travel type of spells. I’m not sure they really add anything except a number to the spell list. Transporting via ethereal takes a character into the shadow world in an unpredictable manner. While it makes sense for a magician to have shadow access spells I wouldn’t rely on them to fill in the needed spell slots.
I hadn’t realized ethereal=Shadow World. Also, I mostly made any planar spells one level higher than for wizards, and concentrated on the banishing-type ones. I think shadow-based spells seem very appropriate for magicians. What I’m unclear on is what exactly you think should fill in the needed spell slots.
I also noticed a number of “new” spells not previously mentioned and was wondering about them. They seem OK based on the brief abbreviation, but again I wouldn’t rely on “new” spells to fill in the slots. And IMO they should be added to some other casters list too.
There were 2 new main spells I added, Competence and Insight. I had suggested the idea for Competence on the previous thread on the 3.5 Magician, and Insight was one I added as a spell that seemed the real province of the specialized Diviner. The other spells were spinoffs and upgrades of these two spells - Greater and Mass versions.
Competence could easily be a wizard/sorcerer spell, too, if folks would like it as a generally-available arcane spell.Given how cheap it is to make competence-bonus magic items, it seems odd there is no spell for giving similar bonuses.
Insight, however, is the first of several spells I’d like to see be exclusive spells tot he magician. One of the major reasons the magician lacks equality as a class (no matter what class features are concocted) is the lack of any true advantages other than more spells from a limited set of choices, all of which are equal or inferior to wizard and sorcerer spells. Just as the Bard has some really great spells, a few of which are not available to sorcerers or wizards (or only as higher level spells), I would like to see at least a small array of spells that are too subtle for the raw surges of true magic. Specialist Divination and Illusion spells that highlight the advantages of the “Lesser Path.” If we are to go with 3.x D&D, and work to balance this class, then we need to give it the means to prove that they can fill a role that true mages cannot. And that takes some exclusive abilities.
So what I would like to see are other submissions for new Magician spells, unique to their spell list AND well worth learning. Signature spells.
Osprey
