Since the School of Invention UA is a bit older I am gonna put this here because I am not sure where else to do it.
School of Invention is really fun to play, but it's got the wrong narrative hook to it, at least, for me it does. It should actually be the School of Adaptation.
I've been playing an Invention Wizard for a few months now in one of my games and instead of running it as 'Wizard who likes to experiment' I am running it as 'Wizard who can't cast spells the normal way'. IE, they had to adapt to keep using magic. In the case of my character, they are missing fingers so Somatic gestures are hard for them. But it could be a Wizard who has an uncontrollable stutter, or was injured in a way that keeps them from talking normally. Maybe they lost a hand, or a whole arm in a battle. Or maybe none of that applies and they would be able to cast in the traditional way but have lost, or forgotten, the correct components and have to improvise.
I find that much more interesting, because in a world like the Forgotten Realms (or the upcoming Eberron), there are bound to be lots of injured mages who have had to learn to access their magic in different ways to survive.
Thats an interesting way to play it, I've always played it almost like a magical artificer, or wizard who tries to invent new sigils, spells or anything along those lines. Since experimenting with the raw energies magic uses can have...explosive consequences, it explains the tools and armor as well.
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Since the School of Invention UA is a bit older I am gonna put this here because I am not sure where else to do it.
School of Invention is really fun to play, but it's got the wrong narrative hook to it, at least, for me it does. It should actually be the School of Adaptation.
I've been playing an Invention Wizard for a few months now in one of my games and instead of running it as 'Wizard who likes to experiment' I am running it as 'Wizard who can't cast spells the normal way'. IE, they had to adapt to keep using magic. In the case of my character, they are missing fingers so Somatic gestures are hard for them. But it could be a Wizard who has an uncontrollable stutter, or was injured in a way that keeps them from talking normally. Maybe they lost a hand, or a whole arm in a battle. Or maybe none of that applies and they would be able to cast in the traditional way but have lost, or forgotten, the correct components and have to improvise.
I find that much more interesting, because in a world like the Forgotten Realms (or the upcoming Eberron), there are bound to be lots of injured mages who have had to learn to access their magic in different ways to survive.
Thats an interesting way to play it, I've always played it almost like a magical artificer, or wizard who tries to invent new sigils, spells or anything along those lines. Since experimenting with the raw energies magic uses can have...explosive consequences, it explains the tools and armor as well.