I got into a fight, where flame could be hindered by the gas elements in the air, the monster used electricity as it’s power, so I altered “Scorching Ray” to “Necrotic Ray”.
It doesn’t change the damage, or give bonuses the spell would not have.
Had I altered to radiant damage on an undead that was weak to it, it would have doubled the damage, but unless I had altered a spell like “Melf’s Acid Arrow”, to “Melf’s Radiant Arrow” it would not have had the bonus damage.
The damage of the spell stays the same, no matter the change of damage type, except resistance or vulnerability.
I really love the idea of this subclass. A wizard so knowledgable about magic, that they can alter its code. Effectively creating new spells. Stumbling upon this subclass made me seriously checking out 5E in the first place! It's the sort of wizard I would love to play.
It's a bit broken, however. Just make Hold Person a dex or strenght save and it has practically become a save or die spell.
The only change I made for my campaign was to make the ability to change energy types limited to a number of timers per long rest equal to the caster's INT modifier.
This prevented the wizard from using radiant damage cantrips all the time. Radiant fireballs were still possible as were other energy type damaging spells. But within reasonable limits.
I considered making the save type change also 1/long rest, but after play testing the change, left it alone.
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Watch your back, conserve your ammo, and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Sorry to arrive late to the party, but good call, Mergon.I would like to put an NPC with this subclass, so if you have any other recommendations that you've noticed to work well, I would appreciate it if you would share your insights. Thank you!
Sorry to arrive late to the party, but good call, Mergon.I would like to put an NPC with this subclass, so if you have any other recommendations that you've noticed to work well, I would appreciate it if you would share your insights. Thank you!
When it came out of UA they change it, a lot. Now it doesn't work on cantrips any more, and you are limited to damage types you have on the appropriate casting level.
When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell’s formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend.
You are referring to a feature from the Order of the scribes wizard, but my question was about creating an NPC Loremaster wizard (for use in my game) using its original class features from the UA, and for that I just wanted to get some more advice from Mergon and others, who actually DM-ed a Loremaster wizard for a while, on how to balance this subclass more. I liked how Mergon resolved the issue. Thanks for your reply as well. :)
Mine as well, and although I agree (to a point) that changes are not necessary to said subclass, I want to see experiences from people who have DM-ed a Loremaster wizard for a while to see if something caught them of as being too OP and how they resolved it.
I guess it might also depend a lot on the player who plays it. I played it as a wizard interested in studying the lore (of magic) and thus I built my PC to be an expert in all possible INT based skills - if one would take the necessary skills at 1st level, the 2nd level feature of this subclass offered the expertise in all of those, as you yourself know well. I made sure to take them all, although I could have taken "more useful" ones. This played perfectly well with his backstory of intense studying since he was a child. That in my opinion, is the core essence of this class - a master of various knowledge topics, pertaining to the history, nature, religion etc., and especially the arcane, and no other wizard subclass after was able to replicate that with its features.
Alas, that was also my first character and I picked the wrong spells and so, in a situation my character died. :*| I’ve never reached a higher level than 3 with this subclass, so I don't know if the features are that OP as some claim and if so I would like to see "solutions" from people who DM-ed it.
I’ve also never experienced a character death later on, and also could not find a DM that would DM this class again (and I asked), so I am going to try to add the subclass in my oneshot as an homage to it, at least.
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I want to know what ideas you have for the Loremaster. It has vast potential and a lot of versatility.
Feel free to tell stories.
I got into a fight, where flame could be hindered by the gas elements in the air, the monster used electricity as it’s power, so I altered “Scorching Ray” to “Necrotic Ray”.
It doesn’t change the damage, or give bonuses the spell would not have.
Had I altered to radiant damage on an undead that was weak to it, it would have doubled the damage, but unless I had altered a spell like “Melf’s Acid Arrow”, to “Melf’s Radiant Arrow” it would not have had the bonus damage.
The damage of the spell stays the same, no matter the change of damage type, except resistance or vulnerability.
I have been playing one, and even when I reach lvl 6 it makes some things hard to decide.
If you use just the first argument of Magic Missile: 1d4+1 x 3 = Min 6/Max 15/Avg 10
Add Alchemical Casting: +1 slot adds 2d10 = Min 2/Max 20/Avg 10
So for (2) Lvl 1 spell slots you risk: Min 8/Max 35/Avg 20
Same Spell with a lvl 2 slot you get range but no more than initial damage: 1d4+1 x 3 = Min 6/Max 15/Avg 10
Save Spell bonus is spell slot + a Lvl 3 spell slot to get, +2 to your spell DC.
So a lvl X spell With a Save bonus = X+ Lvl 3 slot
this is not a fast and easy way, especially since there is no discount on learning found spells.
I really love the idea of this subclass. A wizard so knowledgable about magic, that they can alter its code. Effectively creating new spells. Stumbling upon this subclass made me seriously checking out 5E in the first place! It's the sort of wizard I would love to play.
It's a bit broken, however. Just make Hold Person a dex or strenght save and it has practically become a save or die spell.
It is broken, yes, but I think WotC had the right idea there. It just needs a bit of tweaking.
The only change I made for my campaign was to make the ability to change energy types limited to a number of timers per long rest equal to the caster's INT modifier.
This prevented the wizard from using radiant damage cantrips all the time. Radiant fireballs were still possible as were other energy type damaging spells. But within reasonable limits.
I considered making the save type change also 1/long rest, but after play testing the change, left it alone.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Sorry to arrive late to the party, but good call, Mergon.I would like to put an NPC with this subclass, so if you have any other recommendations that you've noticed to work well, I would appreciate it if you would share your insights. Thank you!
When it came out of UA they change it, a lot. Now it doesn't work on cantrips any more, and you are limited to damage types you have on the appropriate casting level.
You are referring to a feature from the Order of the scribes wizard, but my question was about creating an NPC Loremaster wizard (for use in my game) using its original class features from the UA, and for that I just wanted to get some more advice from Mergon and others, who actually DM-ed a Loremaster wizard for a while, on how to balance this subclass more. I liked how Mergon resolved the issue. Thanks for your reply as well. :)
I played one before it came out of UA, and I would have changed nothing to it. It was my favourite UA class.
Mine as well, and although I agree (to a point) that changes are not necessary to said subclass, I want to see experiences from people who have DM-ed a Loremaster wizard for a while to see if something caught them of as being too OP and how they resolved it.
I guess it might also depend a lot on the player who plays it. I played it as a wizard interested in studying the lore (of magic) and thus I built my PC to be an expert in all possible INT based skills - if one would take the necessary skills at 1st level, the 2nd level feature of this subclass offered the expertise in all of those, as you yourself know well.
I made sure to take them all, although I could have taken "more useful" ones. This played perfectly well with his backstory of intense studying since he was a child. That in my opinion, is the core essence of this class - a master of various knowledge topics, pertaining to the history, nature, religion etc., and especially the arcane, and no other wizard subclass after was able to replicate that with its features.
Alas, that was also my first character and I picked the wrong spells and so, in a situation my character died. :*| I’ve never reached a higher level than 3 with this subclass, so I don't know if the features are that OP as some claim and if so I would like to see "solutions" from people who DM-ed it.
I’ve also never experienced a character death later on, and also could not find a DM that would DM this class again (and I asked), so I am going to try to add the subclass in my oneshot as an homage to it, at least.