Wizard School Revamp

[Electrohydra]

The way wizard favored schools is implemented in Neverwinter Nights is not very good. Picking a favored school does not actually make you any better at using that school of magic. Mechanically, the overwhelming thing that matters from your school pick is which school is forbids you from using.  And while it is true that most people will still pick favored schools based on what fits their character, it would be nice if mechanics and roleplay where more in harmony on this front. Where people who want to focus on evocation spells are actually incentivized mechanically to pick Evocation as their favored school. To achieve this, I believe the favored school system could be revamped to work more like EFU's many Perk systems. Note that the exact numbers in this suggestion are less important then the core which is the system revamp. Developers could change numbers around to buff/nerf wizards so they remain at a desired power level.

The first and most important step is to remove forbidden school. You can achieve this by forcing every wizard to be a Generalist (nwnx character edit) or setting opposed schools to None in Spellschools.2da. Note that setting wizards to Generalist will give them less spellslots, which may be desired or not as a possible balancing factor.

Wizards would then be able to pick a perk at level 1 that represents their specialization.  In this suggestion it will work like Fighter perks (1/5/8) but it could work in different ways. You may also want to remove their level 5 bonus feat to compensate for these perks.

Without further ado, here is my suggestions for what the perks could do. Again the exact details are less important then the fact that schools are turned into perks. Note that all schools recieve Spell Focus at level 1. This ensures that the wizards are actually incentivized to cast spells from that school and not simply pick their school for the passive bonuses of latter levels.

Abjurer
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Abjuration
Level 5 - Dispel checks made by the Abjurer are done at +2 caster level. Dispel checks made against the Abjurer are made at -2 caster level.
Level 8 - Spell Resistance 12.

Conjurer
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Conjuration
Level 5 - Summoning spells last an additional 2 rounds/level. Summoning focuses used by the Conjurer have a 50% chance to not be consumed when used.
Level 8 - When the Conjurer summons a creature, it automatically receives one of the following spells at random : Mage Armor, Magic Weapon, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and Endurance.

Diviner
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Divination
Level 5 - Spot +4, Listen +4, Search +4.
Level 8 - The Diviner can see invisible creatures.

Enchanter
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Enchantment
Level 5 - Racial restrictions on enchantment spells are removed.
Level 8 - Enchantment spells that can remove Protection from Alignment can also remove Clarity. +4 Persuade.

Evoker
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Evocation
Level 5 - Cantrip damage is increased to 1d8+1 (1d6 for Flare).
Level 8 - The Evoker is considered to have every Flame Weapon element for the purposes of Greater Spell Focus : Evocation.

Illusionist
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Illusion
Level 5 - Using a spell to turn a target invisible creates a Mirror Image of them.
Level 8 - 35% concealment.

Necromancer
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Necromancy.
Level 5 - 5/- negative energy resistance. Animate Dead 1/day
Level 8 - Disrupt Undead now deals 1d8+1 negative energy damage to non-undead targets. On undead, it grants 1d8+1 temporary hitpoints. Does not stack with itself.

Transmuter
Level 1 - Bonus Feat Spell Focus : Transmutation
Level 5 - Casting an attribute-enhancing transmutation spell (e.g. Bull's Strength) on an ally also casts it on the Transmuter.
Level 8 - The Transmuter makes permanent minor alterations to their body. They gain +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CON.




On a final note, this system also allows there to be wizard specializations other then schools. While this is not strictly necessary, I think it is a great advantage of the system, so I will list one such example here.

For some wizards, the dangers of their art are something to be embraced. There is great power for those who will risk their bodies and minds to achieve anything.  These usually short-lived individuals are those whom the greatest tales of Wizard's Madness are based upon.

Unchained Magus (Chaotic only)
Level 1 - Cannot use Arcane Foci. Spells cause 25% more planar sickness. Flame Weapon element randomized each cast and adds the following options : Sonic, Negative Energy, Positive Energy.
Level 5 - The Unchained Magus may cast Unravel up to 3 times per day.  Spells cause 50% more planar sickness.  While Heavily Afflicted by the Planes, gains +2 INT.
Level 8 - Spells cause 100% more planar sickness. While Intensely Afflicted by the Planes, the Unchained Magus gains Spell Focus in every school. While under Planar Madness, they gain Greater Spell Focus in every school.

[Richørd]

First, copied straight from the wiki on what choosing a spellschool does :
A wizard may choose to specialize in a school of magic, thereby gaining one additional spell slot per spell level while losing the ability to cast spells from an opposed school. This prohibition extends to spells cast from scrolls, but not to spells cast from other kinds of items. In addition, specialist wizards have a bonus (+2) to identifying spells (through spellcraft) from their area of expertise and a penalty (-5) to identifying spells from the opposing school. Alternatively, a wizard may choose to not specialize, thus keeping access to all spells.

From my experience on other PWs wizards have always proven to be too good. Absolutely so.
Therefore I am a bit confused about why the bonus spellslots are completely ignored here, how it is not even glossed over how wizards are already superior versions of sorcerers and then you suggest to remove the Favored School system's one big downside by having the opposed school reinstated entirely, am I getting this right?

And then adding a free perk on top of that with a free feat at level 1 and big bonuses later with no downsides in sight?
Wow.

[derkot]

I think what Richørd is right regarding power of wizards and power of spellslots what they can have from chosen school regardless of how mechanically bad it is. Still, for low level environment each spell slot matters! I agree what nwn very bad dealt with school things and wizards and I never saw what anything was done about in other nwn places.
But what can be done in EFU then? I think it is simply adding/suggesting more different/interesting spells that will fill up schools that have few or not useful/popular spells.
And perks should stay in sorcerers hands in my opinion but your suggestion about unchained wizard perk sounds very cool and I hope maybe we will see something like that in the future!

[Charnelist]

I for one quite like this suggestion.

I'm not sure exactly what Richørd was trying to say about spell slots, but forcing every wizard to be a generalist removes bonus spell slots (gained from specialisation) entirely.
Removing bonus feats (5, 10) would fix up wizards further, and that was also in the suggestion.
Furthermore, if you're picking your 'school' via conversation after creation, you're missing out on the chance to jump into play at level (2) with a GSF in your 'school'. You'd have to wait until level 3, when you can take another feat and have the SF required.
That is OK and, to me, balanced. You'd likely find wizards doing what they and sorcerers have always done - branch into generally two spell schools - except that there's a bit of extra flash and polish.

The real question is whether dismissing forbidden schools is OK. Insofar as balance goes, on EfU players have clearly been accepting of the drawback for the sake of more spell slots. Does that mean it's balanced? I don't know, probably not, balance is an acid trip.

[Octarine]

This is an excellent suggestion. Some of the perks might need a slight alteration,  but the core idea sounds like exactly what EFU needs for making wizards as fun as sorcs.

[Astegard]

I'm afraid this would make sorcerers non existent.
Wizards having spell flexibility is already such a huge boon whereas sorcerer you basically need to be near lvl 9 to pick "fun spells" as a default set is required to even stay alive or make use of your perk bonuses.

[Richørd]

I'm not sure exactly what Richørd was trying to say about spell slots, but forcing every wizard to be a generalist removes bonus spell slots (gained from specialisation) entirely.

1st : Wizards unlock each level of spells a level earlier than sorcerers. A very potent boon on such a low level server. Where a sorcerer receives a single 4th level spell slot upon CL 8 a specialist wizard receives two 4th level spell slots at CL 7.
EDIT : I admittedly misread the post yesterday and I managed to overlook the little part about making all wizards generalists. That would at least remove the bonus spell slots and spellcheck bonuses.

2nd : Wizards receive Scribe Scroll for free at level 1. They also receive bonus feats at CL 5 (very easy to reach) and CL 10 (very hard to reach). Another boon to this class compared to what sorcerers have.

3rd : They are INT based which automatically makes it easy for them to max out all of their class skills. Very potent.


I don't think wizards need to be made any better than they already are.

[Autarch]

I think that improving the implementation of school specialization is a worthwhile endeavor because stuff like that is fun. I don't think this is the right approach though since I'm also of the opinion that wizards aren't in need of a buff and perks should be a sorcerer thing.

For one, removing the forbidden school is already taking away from what it means to specialize in a school, that you're giving up some magic to be better at other. Granted it doesn't work out so well in base NWN but EfU is already doing things that can improve specialization where your chosen school affects your spells. This is how I think school specialization should manifest, you get your extra spell slots and the spells you cast of your chosen school have more powerful effects. I also think that wizards should be able to choose their forbidden school instead of how NWN does it presently. I'd also go so far as to say they should have two forbidden schools but I imagine most people won't like that. Removing the forbidden school also removes the existence of generalist wizards and I don't think that should happen.

Removing their 5th level feat as a form of compensating for the perk isn't really so much as compensating as it is moving their 5th level feat to 1st level instead and then giving them some more stuff on top of that. Giving them a spell focus feat also doesn't really incentivize anything. I'd expect most wizards to pick schools based on what type of spells they want to cast so they'll be casting those spells anyway and they're still going to be casting all sorts of other spells regardless of what spell focus feats they have. Even moreso if they'd have no forbidden schools.

What EfU is already doing that I think is great is that spell focus feats (greater spell focus in particular) unlock more powerful spell effects and I think this should be expanded upon instead. Though mostly I think that some of these added effects (maybe not all of them but definitely more powerful ones) should be unavailable to wizards unless they're specialized in that particular school because I don't think wizards need the buff.

But also what could be done is that a wizard casting outside their specialized school greatly increases the planar sickness generated and maybe everyone in the immediate vicinity should receive planar sickness (not just the target), incentivizing them to stick to their chosen school if they at all care about their own well being. And when it comes to wizard madness, maybe planar sickness could just have creative built-in buffs for wizards (randomized increased caster levels, %chance of recovering spell slots after casting spells, increased DC or added metamagic effects or other weird and unexpected effects) that aren't perk locked so they'd be at least tempted to go all in and go completely insane instead of cowering behind an arcane focus they only whip out when casting spells.

All in all, I think if you want to be a more powerful wizard you should be forced to go into the deep end of the planar sickness/wizard madness pool instead of just getting passive buffs from a perk.

[SkillFocuspwn]

Wizards are very powerful and already have a system in place that gives bonuses through feats (that also benefits other, less powerful classes).